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Inspire Session

Hybrid Session

Session: : Scaling-up Demography Using Remote Sensing

INS 5-2 - Monitoring From Above: Drone Characterization of Dry Conifer Forests

Tuesday, August 8, 2023
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PDT
Location: 251

    Presenting Author(s)

  • WT

    Wade Tinkham

    Research Forester
    Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, United States

    • Co-author(s)

  • Mike Battaglia

    Research Forester
    Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service
    Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

  • CH

    Chad Hoffman

    Colorado State University, United States

  • LL

    Lauren Lad

    Colorado State University

  • LH

    Laura Hanna

    Mountain Studies Institute

Across the western United States there is growing emphasis on the restoration of forest spatial patterns. However, traditional plot-based inventories cannot fully describe the spatial arrangement of trees. Alternative inventory strategies are needed that can provide traditional forest inventory metrics, while also characterizing the horizontal and vertical heterogeneity of forest structure. Unmanned aerial system (UAS) technologies are beginning to mature to the point of providing near-census level forest inventories in low to moderate ( <60%) canopy closure forests. This presentation will highlight recent advances in individual tree detection for characterizing forest structures from tree to stand scales.