How Wildfire Carbon Removal Is Funding Forest Recovery
Mast Reforestation buries wildfire-killed trees in oxygen-free chambers to lock carbon underground, then uses the revenue to replant native forests across the American West.
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Mast Reforestation
How Wildfire Carbon Removal Is Finally Funding Forest Recovery
Every year, wildfires across the American West leave behind millions of
dead trees. Left on the ground, they slowly release the carbon stored over
decades. Piled and burned — the standard practice — they release it even
faster. For years, no better option existed. Mast Reforestation built one.
The Seattle-based company buries fire-killed trees in engineered,
oxygen-limited underground chambers, turning carbon that would have escaped
into a permanent underground sink. This is the first project to combine
engineered carbon removal through burned biomass burial with post-wildfire
reforestation, creating verified carbon credits that directly finance
replanting the same forests the fires destroyed.
How Wildfire Carbon Removal Through Biomass Burial Works
Mast sources wood from trees killed by wildfire at each project location,
preventing emissions, reducing fire risk, and funding forest recovery. The wood
goes into geotechnically engineered chambers with minimal oxygen, halting
decomposition entirely. Carbon locked inside those trees for decades stays
underground instead of re-entering the atmosphere.
The process doesn't stop at burial. Advanced sensors continuously track
subterranean conditions including temperature, methane, and water vapor levels,
while periodic site visits provide additional oversight for long-term storage
stability. Each site is protected under a 100-year endowed easement, ensuring
monitoring and maintenance outlast the initial project by generations.
MT1, Montana: Wildfire Carbon Removal That Delivered
Mast's first project, Wood Preserve MT1 in south-central Montana, proved
the model at scale. Just four months after breaking ground, Mast buried more
than 10 million pounds of fire-killed trees, completing the largest single
biomass storage project to reach the voluntary carbon market within a year of
launch.
The results were immediate. Less than six weeks after issuance, Mast sold
100% of the 4,277 carbon removal credits, with buyers including Bain and
Company, BMO, and Royal Bank of Canada. In addition, MT1 received an A rating
from BeZero Carbon, a threshold fewer than 8% of all non-nature-based carbon
removal projects globally reach.
The Scale Behind the Wildfire Carbon Removal Opportunity
The numbers reveal how large this opportunity is. Mast has identified
more than 6.5 million tons of burned biomass in Montana alone eligible for
burial projects. Nationally, restoring the 6 million acres already lost in the
US would take 50 years by traditional means. Biomass burial creates a revenue
stream from the material that currently blocks recovery, changing the economics
of reforestation entirely.
Through its two nurseries, Cal Forest and Silvaseed, Mast operates the
largest seed bank in the western United States, growing more than 30 million
seedlings annually. That vertical integration, from burial to replanting, is
something no other post-fire restoration company currently matches. Fast
Company named Mast one of its Most Innovative Companies of 2026, and Scientific
American noted that wood vaulting carries the potential to remove 12 billion
tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year globally.
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