{"id":471412,"date":"2021-11-05T06:53:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T13:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=471412"},"modified":"2025-04-01T13:15:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T20:15:43","slug":"drones-precision-forestry","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/drones-precision-forestry","title":{"rendered":"Drones, Imagery Bring Precision Agriculture Concepts to Forestry"},"author":7572,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1031,801],"tags":[482772,141,162582,271,476122],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478382],"esri_blog_department":[478182],"class_list":["post-471412","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-resources","category-operational-intelligence","tag-ai-ml","tag-drones","tag-forestry","tag-mapping","tag-working-lands","esri-blog-category-forestry","esri_blog_department-natural-resources"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"F&W Forestry Services uses drones in the field to monitor forest health and apply targeted treatments to yield the best timber harvest.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"F&amp;W Forestry Services uses maps to suggest best practices and drones to monitor progress on forest management plans.\r\n\r\nKey Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Foresters gain a new perspective with drones to see the whole forest.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Forest owners can see forest status and check progress of work on projects.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Drone managers have a new enterprise tool to improve image collection workflows.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The revolution of precision agriculture\u2014with its continuous mapping and monitoring of crop needs and drone-guided planting, weeding, and fertilizing to improve crop health\u2014has arrived in the forest.\r\n\r\nJust like farmers use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/mapping\/overview\">mapping<\/a> to optimize growing conditions, foresters can apply sophisticated tools to better plan and manage the forest.\r\n\r\nF&amp;W Forestry Services, for one, applies a geographic information system (GIS) approach to assess the health of clients\u2019 forests and maximize lumber yield. F&amp;W\u2019s forest consultants are increasingly using drones to capture details to guide forest management plans and to simply provide a top-down view of the forest.\r\n\r\n\u201cLandowners can see the quality of the work from the air,\u201d\u00a0 said Bryan Croft, regional manager at F&amp;W. \u201cAnd they learn a little bit more about their property too.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":471942,"image_position":"left","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><strong>Farming Rich Forest Land<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nF&amp;W manages hundreds of thousands of acres of privately owned yellow pine plantations in southeast Georgia and northern Florida. Much like farming, it\u2019s not a plant and watch practice; much can be done to improve the health and yield of each tree. The company does a lot of mechanical work, guided by maps, including dragging a drum chopper behind a tractor to knock down brush, preparing seedling beds by mounding topsoil in rows, and spot raking to increase bed quality.\r\n\r\nEach of these tactics has been shown to improve yield, sometimes dramatically. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/treesearch\/pubs\/42891\">One study from the 1970s<\/a> showed a 76 percent increase in pine growth with a program of fertilizer and bedding. That impressive yield led to the quick spread of the practice. Yellow pine forests have been farmed for the past 200 years in the region known as America\u2019s wood basket, and it didn\u2019t take long for tree farming practices to spread. Many owners apply all these practices in their highly managed forests.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have some of the most productive soils in the southeast,\u201d Croft said. \u201cWe can really grow trees fast.\u201d\r\n\r\nPine plantation forests are planted with precision with special tractors that evenly space seedlings. Some are even hand planted for further control and consistency. \u201cAll the bedding work is done with GPS, and the beds are very straight, very consistent,\u201d Croft said.\r\n\r\nThe precision work is guided by maps that F&amp;W creates. The maps contain details about soil type, vegetation health, and topography.\r\n\r\nF&amp;W also uses GIS to record all the services it applies to each forest tract. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/imagery-remote-sensing\/drone-mapping\">Drone mapping<\/a> provides owners with an added assurance that the work that was contracted has been applied. \u201cWhen you\u2019re communicating with a forest owner 1,000 miles away, and you\u2019re telling them, \u2018Hey, it rained six inches yesterday, there\u2019s water flowing down the road, and it\u2019s too wet to work,\u2019 it\u2019s nice that you can fly up above and take a picture to show them,\u201d Croft said."},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[471912,471932,471922]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><strong>Flexibility of Flights<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nDrone mapping provides other important capabilities that F&amp;W consultants are just beginning to exploit.\r\n\r\n\u201cUsing the drone to quickly take a couple of shots for our inspection reports has been an eye-opener for a lot of landowners,\u201d Croft said. \u201cIn today\u2019s real-time world, the quicker you can get information out that\u2019s accurate, the better off you are.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe flexibility and low cost of launching a drone and the data drones can gather are why they\u2019ve become essential to field operations at F&amp;W and elsewhere.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe're flying drones in the southeastern United States out to Arkansas, Texas, the northeast around New York and Vermont, and we're flying a lot in the United Kingdom,\u201d said Collier Kidd, a GIS and mapping specialist at F&amp;W who also manages the drone mapping program.\r\n\r\nIn June F&amp;W had its busiest flying month with 119 flights, because it's easiest to see forest health before the heaviest growing months of summer. Kidd estimates that the F&amp;W team has flown more than 50,000 acres since the drone program began in earnest a few years ago. The drones provide imagery and mapping for site prep work and maintenance and to prepare for planting season. They also help plan for harvest, which occurs year-round, depending on the market and the interest of the owner.\r\n\r\n\u201cMost landowners are growing timber to around aged 20 to 25 years, before clear cutting and starting a new plantation,\u201d Croft said. \u201cWe're thinning timbers as early as the age of 8, and often do a second thinning after 16 to 18 years.\u201d\r\n\r\nF&amp;W planted roughly 24,000 acres last year for clients in Croft\u2019s region, which equates to roughly 38 square miles of new forest, to meet the demand for lumber to build housing and other structures."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<h2><strong>A Drone Tool for Fleet Operators<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nCollier Kidd, a GIS and mapping specialist at F&amp;W Forestry Services, has been integrating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/site-scan-for-arcgis\/overview\">Site Scan for ArcGIS<\/a> to streamline data capture and flight planning for F&amp;W\u2019s growing fleet of drones.\r\n\r\nA prior drone management solution was inefficient, requiring too much of his time to manage the process and act as an intermediary between all the pilots. He was also having to process imagery and then upload and share it himself.\r\n\r\nNow, the pilots have access to quickly upload and process what their drones captured into the cloud and Site Scan converts the imagery into high resolution maps and 3D models. This comes in handy to ensure they captured what they came to collect. Because it's a cloud-based tool, everyone can see each other's work immediately on any device.\r\n\r\nIt also means F&amp;W can provide to owners quick feedback and answers that otherwise would have taken days or even a week.\r\n\r\nKidd also likes the tools he has as an administrator to review the work of the pilots, and keep track of their licenses and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) registration. He can see and manage battery use and remind pilots if their certification is set to expire soon.\r\n\r\nWith the drones, the operators cover more ground, and they can do that safely as they don't have to walk through hazardous terrain to inventory the forest.\r\n\r\n\u201cUltimately, the goal is to get everybody in our company flying drones and realizing all the advantages of it,\u201d Kidd said.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><strong>Making the Most of Drone Mapping <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nCroft credits F&amp;W\u2019s growth to adding mapping and drone imaging capacity to its consulting services.\r\n\r\nIn F&amp;W's real estate business, the imagery and point clouds captured of forest tract are often enough to convince a person to buy. \u201cIf you\u2019ve got somebody interested in a property we have for sale in Virginia, but they live in Texas, you can save them a trip to look at the property. The imagery is that good,\u201d Kidd said. He sees a future in using the drones for marketing materials and connecting with potential buyers.\r\n\r\nCroft has hopes for more 3D viewing of the land and trees and the ability to analyze how trees respond to treatments.\r\n\r\n\u201cI think there\u2019s potential to jump into changes in leaf area index after fertilization applications and maybe even seeing changes in foliage color to forecast growth and yields,\u201d Croft said. \u201cThe holy grail would be the ability to conduct an inventory without sending a forester.\u201d\r\n\r\nFor Croft, the convenience of a drone to cover more ground and gather more input is probably the most important factor.\r\n\r\n\u201cOn those days when you want to look at something off in the distance, and it\u2019s either 100 degrees or it\u2019s knee-deep in water, it\u2019s a nice tool to have,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can never really predict when those days will come, so it\u2019s good to have it in the truck with you at all times.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/natural-resources\/segments\/forestry\">GIS helps maximize the value of timber assets<\/a>."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Drones, Imagery Bring Precision Agriculture Concepts to Forestry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"F&amp;W Forestry Services uses drones in the field to monitor forest health and administer management practices, yielding the best timber harvest.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/drones-precision-forestry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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