Digitizing the Forest

PIONEERING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

ON THE EXPERIMENTAL FOREST

Student Managers Map Future Forestry Careers

By Ralph Bartholdt, University Communications and Marketing, November 2021.

University of Idaho students are now able to master deciphering airborne forest imagery at the University of Idaho Experimental Forest (UIEF.) As of 2021, the UIEF has used imagery called “lidar” to become the first university forest in the nation to have a fully digitized single-tree inventory. Full digitization gives U of I students unparalleled opportunities to make real-world forestry decisions on timber harvesting and prescribed burning. Lidar, also known as “light detection and ranging,” uses reflected laser energy to measure structures scanned from a drone, helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft to generate 3D information about trees, brush, terrain, streams, roads and rock formations. In her forestry classes, senior Jordan Williams has learned that lidar data are used to digitize forest structure. Forest managers use this information to more precisely inventory forests on a computer screen, significantly reducing time counting and measuring trees using traditional sampling practices. Williams’ supervisors at her summer internship encouraged her to master Lidar’s modern technology before graduating. “A lot of foresters don’t know how to use this technology,” Williams said. “It’s a generational thing. As the next generation, we’re expected to know how it works, so we too can teach others.” For more than a century, the standard approach to measuring forests has been to sample plots and assess trees to understand conditions including tree heights and volume, species type, structural defect and other variables that estimate value and use. Tomorrow’s foresters, including Williams, will now use lidar-produced measurements and satellite imagery to inventory forests with greater precision. This modern approach will allow foresters to measure every single tree, from a 500-acre stand to a 1 million-acre landscape. “Lidar helps us collect more data faster and more accurately than having boots on the ground,” Williams said. “It lets us see the species of trees in different stands, measure timber volume, the levels of vegetation from the ground to the canopy, and how much heat and humidity is stored on different landscapes.” “It enables more work to be completed more accurately by fewer people,” said Mark Corrao, vice president and owner of Northwest Management Inc, a Moscow based company partnering with CNR to create an endowment for precision forestry. “You can physically see tree height, spacing, tree mortality and total forest conditions on your screen or phone in real time, so it can be used for data collection, day-to-day operations or planning,” said Corrao. With full digitization, the college is in a unique position to train students, emphasized Robert Keefe, director of the school’s forest. “Right now, we’re the first university forest pioneering and evaluating the operational uses of Northwest Management’s technology for applied silviculture and harvest operations,” Keefe said. “This is where industry is heading. We are working with them to be out front, training our forestry students to begin their job understanding how to use lidar. That means our students will be that much more useful to the company.” The technology also helps recreational managers plan trails, wildlife biologists make habitat decisions, and fire ecologists to predict, map and manage fuel loads and fire risks. Forestry major James Shook, who learned about lidar in the classroom before working three months for Northwest Management, said despite lidar’s razor-sharp imagery, foresters are still necessary to provide in-field measurements and calibration to train and verify lidar outputs. “The technology is still so new that we were going out into the woods to double check the data,” Shook said. “It is really cool to see the educational side of it in the classroom and then go out and get the field experience.” Williams considers her lidar training a necessary tool to finding employment in the quickly changing forest industry. By learning in U of I’s on-campus and outdoor classrooms how to translate lidar data to on-theground decisions, Williams is certain she and fellow U of I forestry students have an edge over their competitors. “I think this gives us a huge advantage when we go out to look for jobs as foresters,” she said. “We already know how to use the technology that others are still learning about.”