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Many startups have taken aim at the problem of early wildfire detection and prevention, but Turkey-based ForestGuard’s space-based system could give it an edge over competitors.
ForestGuard, which presented onstage today as part of the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt, was founded by trained architects Muhammed Ali Örnek and Suat Batuhan Esirger, who witnessed the need for early detection firsthand after seeing the devastating effects of wildfires across Turkey in 2021. The pair realized that more could be done to detect wildfires at the earliest stages, and that many currently available systems that use thermal sensors or satellites are limited by the need for the hardware to be in line-of-sight to communicate.
The co-founders started thinking about a wearable device for trees that analyzes the air to detect fires. They started experimenting with development ports and different sensors, ultimately creating more than 50 different prototypes, many of which used LoRa, a low-power, long-range communication protocol. Their first test to see if the sensor could “read” the air? A barbecue in their garden.
The results were promising, and ForestGuard got its next big test after they installed some sensors in the south of Turkey in October 2022; those sensors sent out an alarm notification to ForestGuard just three weeks later. The ultimate culprit of the alarm was a person smoking a cigarette — not an ideal forest activity, but hardly a wildfire. The team realized they needed to make their sensor smarter.
The company ultimately settled on a sensor inside a small solar-powered box that reads air resistance values in milliseconds and can generate a “fingerprint” of what’s going on in the air around it, like if someone is smoking a cigarette or if there’s a car emitting exhaust nearby — or if there’s a wildfire. Puns shortly followed: The system has been called the “Internet of Trees” or the “WoodWideWeb.”
Many of the company’s sensors still use LoRa to communicate data, but after the devastating earthquake in Turkey last year, which destroyed terrestrial communication infrastructure, the company started developing sensors that use satellite connectivity. As Esirger put it in a recent interview, the company realized it had to become “disaster proof.”
ForestGuard’s newest tech is essentially a sensor-to-satellite RF communication system. The wide-spectrum sensors can measure a variety of data to generate that fingerprint, from gas levels to temperature to air pressure and more. The sensors are attached right to tree trunks, which transmit the data to EchoStar satellites in geostationary orbit. If emergency conditions are detected, the satellite pings ForestGuard, the customer, or the relevant authorities, to take action. Satellite connectivity is not any more expensive compared to LoRa or GSM, a cellular network protocol, because each device sends such small packets of data, the company explained.
For high-risk areas, which could have a manufacturing facility nearby, or are highly frequented by people, ForestGuard recommends one device per hectare; for low-risk areas, one device per 16, or even 32, hectare. The company’s two sensor models — the ones that use LoRa/GSM and the satellite-connected sensors — are presently monitoring more than 2 million square meters of forest in Turkey, with demonstrations currently happening in France, Australia, and England.
Beyond wildfires, the company pivoted at the start of this year to detect industrial fires, as well. ForestGuard’s current customers span forestry ministries, industrial facilities, resort hotels, and insurance companies. The company sells the devices for around $500, or leases them for $250 per device per year, with an annual subscription fee of $100.
ForestGuard is currently raising a $1 million seed round to expand its operations.
