LiDAR + ForestView™
LiDAR + ForestView™
Technological advancements and innovation are vital to balance social, economic and environmental priorities across the natural resource industry. Northwest Management, Inc. is dedicated to the integration of on-ground experience and technology that increases our ability to provide high-quality, accurate services. Our ForestView™ products integrate the technologies of aerial and terrestrial Lidar, UAVs, satellite imagery, machine learning and artificial intelligence to a more detailed measurement of forestlands, at less cost, than traditional methods.
Our field teams, equipped with Mobile Lidar Scanners (MLS), provide high-density point clouds from below the canopy for stem-mapping trees while our licensed UAV pilots provide a birds-eye view and virtual forest measurements. Combining these field technologies with nearly 40-years of forest-inventory experience and custom-specified aerial Lidar, offers our digital-engineering staff the high-quality and precise data required to build our single-tree Digital Inventory™ across forested landscapes from 10,000 to 1,000,000+ acres.
Northwest Management Inc. takes pride in our robust field staff and field training programs, as well as decades of data collection, analysis, and research expertise because even with the best applications of technology it is critical to maintain accurate and precise information for planning and management decisions that persist for multiple generations.
Our Team’s experience in many diverse aspects of natural resources, their management, and innovative technology results in high-quality products, consistent communication, and leadership that bridge gaps between scientists, practitioners, executives, policy makers, and residents of the communities that we work with. Nearly four decades of experience across the western U.S., combined with technology, offers strengths integral to adapting technology and overcoming the challenges we face in natural resource management. Our team provides valuable leadership and guidance that positively supports planning and actionable mitigation decisions.
Services & Products from High-Resolution Aerial Lidar*
- Single-Tree Forest Inventory (Height, DBH, Species, Total Volume)
- Forest Tree Stress/Mortality
- Tree Segment #s, Crown Metrics, Distribution Tables
- Total Vegetation Stratification
- Tree ID at >15 feet tall in multi-structured forests
- Digital Elevation Mapping <1m
- Road Layers, Maintenance/Construction Estimates
- Streams, Riparian Zone Quality
- Stream Shade %
- Canopy Cover
- Wildlife Habitat and Forage Ratios
- Fire Risk and Access Routes
- Biomass and Carbon Estimates
- Site Index with multiple flights
- Stand Delineation and Forest Typing
- A Great Article by Timbers West on LiDAR
*We define High-Resolution Lidar as a minimum of >12ppm², <2 year old, a beam divergence of <45cm, and with normalized intensity.
Remote Forest Management
Planes, UAVs and Satellites
Aerial Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) over a forest, is in essence, a xerox scan from an aircraft. For areas 100,000 acres+ a fixed-wing plane is most common. Since 2014 our team has applied a diversity of technology to natural resource management for the purpose of decreasing service costs and increasing value to our clients. In 2017 we have advanced our services to a Lidar-assisted single-tree product through our ForestView™ machine learning software, to provide a fully operable Digital Inventory™
Measurements, Accuracy and
Validation Testing
Model growth, mortality, and stand dynamics over time under varying silvicultural alternatives with greater accuracy and reliability at multiple scales. Our robust data provide the power to make better-informed decisions across a landscape at the individual-tree and ownership level.
ForestView™
Know Your Forest
By Individual Trees
Have the GPS location of single-trees in your forest. Provide the greatest accuracy of silvicultural information to field professionals and managers. A Digital Inventory™ at your fingertips to focus management and financial resources or re-stratify the landscape based on desired tree attributes. Identify high-conservation value areas including; nesting sites, forage, cover, and riparian conditions. Every custom selection or polygon is a list of individual trees, each with its unique features. Then with multiple flights, measure physical growth and calculate site-index.
GPS Location
Height
Crowns
Volume
Piece Size
Diameter
Site Productivity
Area or Property Specific
Log Size Distributions
Reduce inventory costs, know total-forest stocking, estimate logging and hauling costs for every acre, and geographically map the feasibility of supply-chain decisions. ForestView™ results provide a Digital Inventory™ of the metrics you need at the scale you want to merchandize or re-merchandize any area as markets or product demands change.
Tree Height Distribution
Improving the Data-to-Decision Process
Decreases Time, Cost and Risk
Reduce the costs of field work and get the most accurate forecasts of return for any treatment on any acre, including; stand and stock tables, product profiles, and growth & yield data. Confirm forest benefits and services such as carbon, fiber and wildlife habitat, as well as quantify fire risk and cash flow accurately over time.
Conventional Data Collection
126 acres • 41 plots
$11.38 per acre
Trees measured 420
Mean CI 90% and +/- 10% sample error
LiDAR + ForestView™
23,000 acres • 110 plots
$3.76 per acre
Trees measured 1,461,090
Accuracy 90%+ (0% sample error)
Improving the Data-to-Decision Process
Decreases Time, Cost and Risk
Reduce the costs of field work and get the most accurate forecasts of return for any treatment on any acre, including; stand and stock tables, product profiles, and growth & yield data. Confirm forest benefits and services such as carbon, fiber and wildlife habitat, as well as quantify fire risk and cash flow accurately over time.
Conventional Data Collection
126 acres • 41 plots
$11.38 per acre
Trees measured 420
Mean CI 90% and +/- 10% sample error
LiDAR + ForestView™
23,000 acres • 110 plots
$3.76 per acre
Trees measured 1,461,090
Accuracy 90%+ (0% sample error)
Improved Future Forest
Growth and Yield
Model growth, mortality, and stand dynamics over time under varying silvicultural alternatives with greater accuracy and reliability at multiple scales. Our robust data analytics, highly experience field teams and nearly four decades of applied forestry provide the power to make better-informed decisions across a forest from an individual-tree to a landscape level because sustainability is at the core of our business.