# Our Learnings from Bringing the First Climate-Smart Seedlings to US Markets by Maddie Hall May 24, 2023 Earlier this year, we announced the successful large-scale planting of our climate-smart seedlings. We have started developing mixed-species forest carbon projects and planted around 156,000 seedlings of various species in Georgia. We planted an additional 31,000 seedlings on abandoned mineland in Ohio last week. Together, these sites included around 8,900 photosynthesis-enhanced hybrid poplar trees. It was a long journey to get here, from our humble first plant transformation experiments through the learning experiences of navigating the USDA’s plant regulatory process, our first field trial in Oregon, a successful Series A fundraise, and developing our first carbon projects. One of our core principles has always been to be transparent about what we are doing and how. We waited several years to launch publicly until after we had our greenhouse results showing the efficacy of the photosynthesis-enhanced trees. We self-published our results as a preprint before going through the peer review process. At the same time, to move with the speed required by the climate crisis, we needed to gather data and start deploying our trees in parallel. Planting at a larger scale allows us to learn from real-world data and improve our trait and forest management. ## Grounded in CO2 Removal Leaving OpenAI to start a climate biotech company in 2019 was the biggest risk of my life. We needed to focus on both frontier research and commercial-scale deployment of carbon removal. This was going to be difficult because the timelines involved in biology research and speed to scale are not always aligned. We need at least 1,000 companies with a goal to remove one gigaton of carbon (assuming a 10% success rate) to achieve this scale within the next thirty years. ## R&D First We are an R&D-first organization. Our goal was to learn from the many research efforts focused on photosynthesis enhancement in crops and see if a similar trait would work in trees. Our work focused on climate impact rather than trying to make a plant resistant to herbicides or pesticides. During that time, we stayed in stealth mode to focus on de-risking the technology. Our goal was to launch when we had achieved proof of concept and received USDA confirmation. In Q1 of 2021, we began to see evidence that the photosynthesis-enhancement trait was performing as expected. Our preliminary experiments yielded positive results. ## To the Soil and Beyond In July 2021, we planted our first photosynthesis-enhanced seedlings in the field in Oregon. Genetics is only one factor that determines the overall growth and survivability of a tree. By leaning on expertise from local foresters, we learned how to plant our trees with a high degree of survivability. ## Promising Progress Data from the OSU field trial supports the performance we are seeing at our other field planting sites. We need to plant large pilot plots for further analysis of how our trees grow in various conditions, aiming for 4 million trees planted by the end of next year. ## Commercial Hypotheses and Iteration When building a product in the biotech space, companies face long product development cycles. We focused on traits that have demonstrated efficacy in crops before incorporating them into trees. We prioritize biodiversity and only plant mixed-stand forests with a wide variety of native species alongside our enhanced seedlings. ## The Challenges with Carbon Projects Currently, there is more demand than supply for high-quality carbon credits. Our highest focus for planting should be on marginal lands as they can benefit the most from faster-growing trees. In the state of Pennsylvania alone, there are up to 300,000 acres of degraded mine land that can be reforested. We believe in maximizing land value as carbon sinks while revitalizing surrounding communities. We are collecting rigorous data on the trees' performance in parallel to enhance our projects' transparency and effectiveness.