Mast Reforestation
North America's leading post-fire reforestation and carbon removal company.
Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense across the Western United States, with 2024 seeing almost 65,000 wildfires and 8,924,884 acres burned nationally. The cost for landowners to help these forests regenerate is often prohibitive and the burned trees are left to decay - which can increase the risk of future fires and block the regrowth of new forests - or gathered and burned to clear space, both of which release significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
One solution to this problem is “wood vaulting” - or simply burying the wood that is too damaged or small to sell. While specific environmental factors are required, this technique is able to maintain up to 90% of the material’s carbon over time.
Mast Reforestation, a vertically integrated technology-led company, is combining wood vaulting with reforestation and funding it all through the sale of verified carbon credits. The company removes dead trees from burned areas and buries them onsite (keeping both transportation costs and emissions low) in excavations that are 30 feet deep spanning three acres encased in clay to limit the intrusion of air, water, or insects that would cause the wood to decompose. This prevents the wood from releasing carbon into the atmosphere, and creates a long-term carbon sink. The burial sites are monitored and certified to ensure the carbon remains stored for over 100 years, though research suggests the preservation could last thousands of years.
After the biomass is buried, Mast reforests the same land using native seeds and seedlings suited to the local environment. They do this through their network of professional foresters where Mast provides the project financing, tools and data, and seed and seedling access as well as on-the-ground support. The seeds are primarily sourced from a wide scale cone collection from which seeds are collected and sown into seedlings customized for seed zones and elevation. The goal is to restore wildlife habitat, increase biodiversity, and help forests recover in a way that makes them more resilient to future wildfires. Local communities are involved in collecting seeds and maintaining the projects over time by prioritizing local partnerships and employees.
Mast operates through a network of experienced companies. These include Silvaseed, a nursery and seed supplier that’s been active for over a century; Cal Forest Nurseries, which grows most of California’s reforestation trees; and DroneSeed, which specializes in aerial seeding and restoration technologies. By acquiring new companies and technologies the goal is to speed up the reforestation process. Already Mast is able to get projects done in 6-12 months as compared to the years it would have taken before.
By focusing on practical, scalable methods, Mast aims to offer a reliable path to forest recovery and long-term carbon storage in fire-affected areas. Their Wood Preserve MT1 project in Montana is estimated to sequester 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through onsite burial, while also supporting 900 acres of restoration.
Funded by firms such as Social Capital_ and Seven Seven Six and covered in publications including Grist, Techcrunch, and The New York Times, as well as having received a prize from the Department of Energy in partnership with Carbon Lockdown, Mast is leading the way in this method of carbon sequestration and helping forests, and those that own them, recover from wildfire damage.
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