The Digital Forester

Dr. Nicholas Coops, Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing at UBC, joins The Digital Forester podcast to talk about his journey through forestry, research, and innovation. We explore how remote sensing has evolved, its impact on forest management, and what's next for the field. From global monitoring to cutting-edge projects, Nicholas shares insights from decades at the forefront of forest science.Topics Covered:- Dr. Coops' career path and early influences in remote sensing- The role of remote sensing in modern forestry- Building the Integrated Remote Sensing Studio at UBC- Shifts in satellite data, LiDAR, and forest inventory methods- Translating academic research into operational tools- Upcoming SilviLaser 2025 conference in Quebec City, Canada- Challenges and opportunities in global forest monitoring- Mentorship, leadership, and collaboration in science- Dr. Coops' perspective on what's next for digital forestry

Andrea Feunekes, co-founder and former CEO of Remsoft, helps us kick off Season 5 of The Digital Forester. Andrea reflects on 30+ years of leading Remsoft, building a global business from the ground up with her husband Ugo, and shares lessons learned along the way. We dive into the evolution of forestry tech, the importance of change management, data readiness, and Remsoft's exciting future with the recent acquisition of Lim Geomatics and platform growth. Tune in to hear why Andrea believes we're on the edge of a connected, intelligent forestry future.Topics CoveredThe founding story of Remsoft and early challengesKey technological shifts in forestry: GIS, optimization, AIDefining true optimization and digital forest twinsThe role of data quality and organizational readinessChange management and adapting processes for techThe creation of Remsoft Operations and its AI co-pilotThe acquisition of Lim Geomatics and vision for a connected supply chainChoosing the right private equity partner with Banneker PartnersAdvice for entrepreneurs and working with familyAndrea's future view: automation, decision-making, and digital tools in forestry

Henry Ines is Co-Founder and CEO of Chainparency and joins us from Houston, Texas, USA. Chainparency is a supply chain software and data solutions company that develops turnkey and modular blockchain-based applications and digital tools that help its customers to ensure transparency, traceability and auditability in global supply chains. For the last Digital Forester podcast of 2024, come have a listen on how Chainparency's flagship product GoTrace, the first-of-a-kind 100% turnkey SaaS blockchain-based platform that enables any enterprise or organization regardless of size to engage in end-to-end data collection and digital track & trace at scale, is being used in forestry today.

Frank Mastrobuono is VP Sales, North America at Global Surface Intelligence (GSI) and describes himself as an inspired business development, management, and science professional with a passion for applying technological advances to management of our natural resources. GSI is a forestry and land classification analytics company with offices in both the UK and US. The company has deep roots in environmental sciences, harnessing next generation artificial intelligence to transform satellite, LiDAR and ground survey data into commercially valuable analytics. Come learn about GSI's new cutting-edge product ForINT.

Eli Jensen is the Owner of Ironwood Forestry and joins us from Flagstaff, Arizona. Ironwood Forestry is comprised of a dedicated team of professionals with a passion for forest management and innovation with the aim of revolutionizing the forestry industry. Come have a listen on what the concept of forest architecture means to Eli and his innovation projects dealing with the development of the Mark series of sprayers and his efforts to map thousands of acres using mobile lidar.

Kevin Shorthouse is the Director of Northwest Solutions Inc. and joins us from Thunder Bay, ON. Since 2014, this Northern Ontario family-owned business has been dedicated to providing forestry, mining, and environmental services, along with expert training and communications consulting. Come learn how the company's client-focused, results-oriented team leverages technology to provide innovative solutions to the natural resources sector.

Rod Poirier is the Owner of JRP Solutions Ltd. and joins us from Courtenay, BC. As a Canadian owned and operated company that has been in business since 1992 and managed by forest professionals and software engineers, JRP Solutions currently serves customers across North America and Australia with its Plant Wizard, Forest OPS and SNAP! software solutions. Come have a listen about Rod's career in forestry and what it took to develop these industry-leading software solutions.

Alex van Gelder is the CEO and Founder of Clear Timber Analytics and joins us from the The Netherlands. Clear Timber Analytics provides accurate tools to help foresters with their daily duties by translating modern technology, such as high-resolution drone imagery and advanced data analytics, into reports that allow foresters to precisely target resources. Come have a listen to learn more about Clear Timber Analytics' bark beetle detection, growing stock analysis, forest disturbance analysis, and harvest data visualization solutions.

Dave Ginther is the Owner of Voice Directed Tally Systems Inc. (VDTS) and joins us from Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Dave's background is in the IT sector where for over 25 years he worked as both a general manager and consultant. Dave founded VDTS after discovering Voice Recognition as an effective tool for hands free data gathering and over the years has gained clients in forestry, lumber manufacturing, and agriculture. Come have a listen and learn about VDTS voice directed solutions for forestry.

Marko Gasic is the Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Mosaic Forest Management and joins us from Vancouver, BC. At the time of recording, Marko was the Vice President of Information Technology and Planning at Mosaic and successfully led several major digital transformation projects for the company. Come have a listen to Marko's thoughts from an executive level on the forest technology landscape and his leadership approach to realizing success.

Andrew Davis is the Product Manager for Visual Forester and joins us from Bend, Oregon, USA. In his role, he helps natural resource professionals connect with stakeholders through digital twins of forests and the creation of immersive visualizations from their existing data. Come have a listen to learn how Stand Designer and Visual Forester Pro save people time and headaches by ensuring everyone sees the same picture beyond the data and charts.

Mark Books is the Geospatial Services Manager at LandMark Spatial Solutions. Mark is a Certified Forester of the geospatial variety and has applied these skills for over 25 years to research and forest management, including prescribed burning. He brings his experience to assist fellow foresters and natural resource managers in using geospatial technology to enhance their work. Further desiring to set up forestry and foresters for success, Mark has also been an executive volunteer in his role as President and Co-founder of the Esri Forestry Group since 2008.

George M. Banzhaf is the CEO and co-founder of TreeTracker. His career in the forest industry has been wide ranging, from marketing timber, managing corporate inventory programs, field data gathering, R&D, reforestation and seedling genetics, drone and imagery, silvicultural operations, and GIS mapping. Envisioning a better way for technology to be used to improve information, communication, and collaboration, TreeTracker was developed as a platform (online and in-the-field app) that everyone – no matter their sector of industry or size – could use to organize, develop, and share their data for increased functionality, efficiency, and success. Come learn more about TreeTracker's mission to provide the highest quality information management system available to every sector of the forest community.

Andre Cheung is the Founder and CEO of Robotics Cats and joins us from Hong Kong with Mike Ross and Rob Vernon, Founder and CTO, and CEO, respectively, of Indicium Dynamics from Tasmania. Robotics Cats is a machine vision startup comprised of a team of talented engineers with diverse cultures focused on computer vision, AI, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Indicium Dynamics is a full-service IoT and data integration solutions provider. Their low-code and affordable IoT solutions provide control over the collection, analysis, and display of data, optimising processes across a wide range of industries and organisations. Come have a listen about how Robotics Cats and Indicium Dynamics are collaborating on the XPRIZE Wildfire challenge.

Preston Green is the Assistant Vice President of cut-to-length (CTL) Systems at Miller Timber Services in Philomath, Oregon, USA where he responsible for harvesting management on a select number of harvesting teams, research and development of CTL innovations, and production analytics across a fleet of CTL equipment.

Dr. Kerry Halligan is the GM of Technology at the Woodland Solutions Group. Kerry is a software developer with a background in forestry and a passion for combining the best in mobile, web and geospatial technology to solve complex data collection, management and analysis challenges. He is the lead architect and developer for Woodland Solutions Group's MobileMap, InventoryManager, Spatial CMS framework, and the US Forest Service Digital Mobile Sketch Map application.

Donn is a consulting forester, frequent speaker at forestry workshops and conferences, and developer of the Forest Metrix timber cruising software. Forest Metrix sprang from the woods of central Vermont with its development driven by foresters and the forest industry. Forest Metrix is deployed with state agencies, some of the largest TIMOs and forest and arboriculture service companies, log buyers, and countless consulting foresters, arborists and ecological professionals. Come have a listen to Donn's journey as a forester and entrepreneur, and his passion for solving problems and helping others.

Lidar from space? Impossible, right? NUVIEW came out of stealth mode earlier this year and their mission is to revolutionize the Earth observation industry by building the premier commercial satellite constellation dedicated to annually mapping the planet's entire land surface using lidar technology. NUVIEW's cutting-edge data will elevate worldwide capabilities, transforming human understanding of Earth and expanding the horizons of what is possible. Come listen to Clint Graumann, CEO of NUVIEW, talk about the future of space lidar, Mr. Spoc and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Ben Gwilliam is a Private Land Forest Inventory Analyst with the Ontario Woodlot Association (OWA) and joins us from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ben completed a Master of Forest Conservation at the University of Toronto before joining the OWA where his work focuses on developing enhanced forest inventories using lidar for private woodlot owners. Ben shares how he got started and the various tools that he has had to learn to be able to offer this service to OWA members.

Swapan Chaudhuri is the Co-Founder and CEO of Deeplai and joins us from Poland. TimberID is a complete platform solving the digitalization of forest management and reporting in terms of harvested timber database creation delivering timber provenance authentication, supply chain verification and carbon footprint monitoring. Come have a listen on how TimberID technology can help forestry companies meet their European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) obligations.

John Pineau is the Executive Director at the Ontario Woodlot Association (OWA) and joins us from Mattawa, Ontario. John has worked in the forest industry, led research organizations focused on driving innovation in forestry, taught as a professor at colleges, and most recently, is providing leadership with non-profit organizations. As Part 1 of a podcast series with the OWA, come have a listen about John's journey as an innovator and community builder in the forest industry.

Alex Meyers is the COO and Co-Founder of TimberEye, a company that reimagines how logs get measured, moved, bought and sold. TimberEye log scaling technology perfectly handles hundreds of thousands of logs a month with its operating system covering every aspect of log inventory management. TimberEye scales logs 20x faster than humans within 0.3 cm of verified human scalers resulting in your team having perfect real time visibility into your operations. Come listen to Alex explain how TimberEye is a better way to interact with your supply chain.

Alicia Sullivan is the Product Manager for Google's Earth Engine Sustainability Solutions and joins us from the greater Seattle area. She obtained her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Forest Resources Management from the University of Washington and started her forestry career at the Washington Department of Natural Resources and Weyerhaeuser. Her interest in program and product management led her to roles with Microsoft, Amazon, CARMERA and Google. Come have a listen to Alicia's career journey from forestry to high tech and their overlap with climate and environment.

Steven Hawkes is the Vice President of Forest Resources at LandVest and joins us from Concord, New Hampshire, USA. Steven has been responsible for the oversight of a team of highly qualified foresters, GIS technicians, and administrative staff who provide a full suite of professional forest management services on over 2,000,000 acres of privately-held timberland across the Mid-Atlantic and New England. Come have a listen on a broad range of topics from technology to innovation to people from one of the leaders in the forest industry.

Jens Fuglsang Røge is the Business Manager at HD LogSystems and joins us from Denmark. HD LogSystems is part of the international trading and service company HedeDanmark a/s, whose history can be traced back to 1866. According to Jens, measuring wood should be easy and that is why HD LogSystems has focused on developing and selling wood measurement solutions, including LogStackLIDAR and LogStackPRO. Come have a listen on how photographed cells from biopsies through a microscope to automate the detection of round cells led to the HD LogSystems' first innovation.

Dr. Tuomo Kauranne is the CEO of Arbonaut, a Finnish company focused on building digital twins of forests. In 1998, Arbonaut developed the first forest inventory tools in the world capable of detecting individual trees from aerial and satellite imagery, and over its 25+ years in business, has completed over 100 forestry projects in over 30 countries. Come listen to Tuomo story tell how the company got founded and how he leverages technology for impact.

Markus Drugge (CEO) and Jacob Hjalmarsson (COO) of Arboair join us on this podcast. Many forest owners today lack forest data at a detailed level. At the same time, forest management could be conducted both more profitably and sustainably if we had high-quality digital decision-making data for the prevailing state of the forest. Come have a listen to learn how Arboair uses AI-driven image analysis to produce sharp decision-making data for forest owners.

Dr. Matt Russell is the President & CEO of Arbor Custom Analytics and offers data and analytics consulting services to forestry companies and organizations. With experience in forestry and analytics research, teaching, and outreach, and having authored and co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles focusing on applied forestry research, come have a listen on Matt's thoughts on multiple topics ranging from carbon to blockchain technology.

By day, Dr. John Lindsay is a geomatics professor at the University of Guelph and the rest of time, he is an entrepreneur working as co-founder of Whitebox Geospatial Inc., which is a company that develops innovative geospatial software built on open-source. Come learn more about the WhiteboxTools Open Core, which is the foundation of the Whitebox platform and comprised of over 460 open-source tools, and how it can be used to process and analyze geospatial data of all kinds.

Formerly with the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Dr. Dale Fried is the Founder and CEO of 3DEO Inc., which builds upon US Department of Defense investments in Geiger-mode lidar totaling well over $100M spanning more than a decade. The company's vision is to bring the advanced capabilities of Geiger-mode lidar technology to bear on problems of interest to its commercial and government customers. Fast to 3DEO means 10-30 million 3D measurements per second and thousands of detectors working in parallel. Come listen to what “fast” means in the context of forestry.

We kick off 2023 with Cakey Worthington, VP of Carbon Operations and Zach Pardue, Manager of Forest Information and Geospatial Systems from Anew. With the merger of Element Markets and Bluesource to create Anew, the company introduced "Climate as a Service” – an approach that offers companies and organizations a seamless solution to navigating the increasingly complex landscape of environmental responsibility. Since inception of its legacy companies, Anew has transacted over 150 million tonnes of carbon, has provided more than 240 million diesel gallons equivalent of renewable fuels for transportation, and has developed projects on over 3.5 million acres of forest and farmland.

Dr. Elizabeth Hunter is the COO and Co-Founder of Treeswift, a company that has built a new data and monitoring system for the natural world by pushing the frontier in robotic and machine learning technology. Treeswift has designed high-resolution sensors which can operate underneath the forest canopy and replace traditional forest measurement tools, and when combined with drones and backpacks, can be used to cruise forests for carbon and timber.

Dr. Mark Corrao is the Director of Technology at Northwest Management Inc., which is a leader in forestland and environmental management, providing expertise in forestry, technology, wildfire, water resources, wildlife, hazard management and planning. Dr. Corrao joins us from Idaho to share his journey in forestry and how it led to a Ph.D. in soil physics and environmental law, and the development of the company's ForestView® technology. Currently, ForestView® Lidar and single-tree Digital Inventory® products cover over 4 million acres of commercial forestland within 17 States and one Canadian province.

Taylor Griffith, Founder of TRACT, joins us from Athens, Georgia, USA to talk about how he leveraged his background in financial technologies to develop an all-in-one forestry procurement, accounting, and logistics solution for the forest industry. By streamlining data and processes TRACT gives employees additional hours, days, and weeks every year to work smarter not harder, which means more productivity, efficiency, and value for a forest business. Come listen to Taylor talk about his journey in entrepreneurship and innovation in forestry, and vision for the forest industry.

Bruce Ripley, Project Manager with the Strategic Innovation group at Manulife (Hancock Forest Management), joins us from the Pacific Northwest in the USA to talk about his multi-decade career in forestry and forest technology. Come listen to what Bruce is doing at Manulife with airborne lidar to name one million individual trees and learn what Bruce will be up to in the fall to drive and accelerate innovation in the forestry community. Bruce reminds us that if you don't have data, you can't measure or quantify anything.

Dr. Elias Ayrey, Co-Founder and Head Scientist at Renoster, joins us from the Pacific Northwest in the US to talk about how Renoster uses remote sensing to determine carbon sequestration value for forest offset projects. Come listen to learn what Renoster has to do with rhinos and what deep transparency for carbon credit projects means to them.

Dr. Mark Norris-Rogers, Principal Consultant at RasterMatics International, joins us from outside of Cape Town in South Africa. Mark gives us an overview of commercial forestry in South Africa and shares his experiences from having worked in forestry over the last 30 years. Come listen to why Mark believes that the EO space is being driven by sensors, software and connectivity, and that the key to success is to not be afraid to ask for help and never stop learning.

Olle Gelin is the CEO and Co-Founder of AirForestry, which is a company that thins forests in a completely new way, namely from the air. AirForestry has developed their own electric drone and harvesting head to thin trees and fly them out to roadside from the air. Come listen to Olle describe a future where thinning operations are fossil-free and why he sees the world comprised of only possibilities.

Brendan Moore is a Project Manager at The Lyme Timber Company, a private timberland investment organization founded in 1976, and joins us from Vermont, USA. He shares with us why folks with the most challenging forests are the ones adopting technology the fastest and how that translates into Lyme acquiring over 700,000 acres of lidar data and adoption of earth observation for change detection. Come listen to Brendan explain why despite all the great forest technology available to foresters today, it still comes down to the people and the importance of appreciating and recognizing those working for you. The value of spending time with the field foresters who will be ultimately using the new data and tools cannot be overstated.

Rolf Schmitz is the co-CEO and co-founder of CollectiveCrunch and while normally based out of Germany, joins us from Espoo, Finland. In his words, modelling nature is incredibly complex but also fun and beautiful. CollectiveCrunch originated from the idea that it could make a difference by combining climate and geo data with state-of-the-art analytics to develop new insights. In this conversation, Rolf talks about how cut-to-length harvester data can be used to calibrate models, the importance to focus on outcomes and not the black box nature of AI, the potential of blockchain for tokenizing carbon and much more. If you want to know who is the Linda in CollectiveCrunch's Linda Forest, Linda Scout and Linda Planet solutions, come have a listen.

Alex Bilyk is the Forest Inventory Innovation Manager at Silvacom and joins us from the company's Thunder Bay office. In this podcast, Alex talks about the state of lidar forest inventory across Canada, how opening access to satellite data archives, such as Landsat, has allowed us to go back in time and ask some interesting questions, and importance of open data in driving innovation. Other topics discussed include the future of drones, hyperspectral remote sensing, and fusion of harvesting machine data with lidar to tighten up utilization. Come listen to what Alex means when he says that when you Google forester, you get Subaru, and why we need to change perceptions of the forestry profession.

Brandon Craft is a Technical Services Forester at Forest Resource Consultants (FRC) and joins us from Macon, GA. Immediately after completing his master's degree in forestry from Auburn University, Brandon launched his own forest service provider firm and built it up to a seven-person firm before deciding to join FRC to help with its digital transformation. Come listen to Brandon's thoughts on how COVID-19 dashboards may have been a trigger event for digital transformation in organizations and the importance of geospatial strategy, change management, and executive sponsors in realizing success. While Brandon sees digital transformation well underway in many forestry companies, he reminds us that for some, it is more about digital birth as opposed to transformation.

Bruce MacArthur is the CEO of Tesera Systems and joins us from the foothills in between Cochrane and Calgary, Alberta. He started his career in forestry by working in sawmills at the age of 14 years old, which in turn led to the pursuit of a forestry degree at UBC. With staff in BC, Alberta, Nova Scotia and Thailand, Tesera is a remote first company and has been in business for over 24 years with clients in Canada, USA, Brazil, Europe and South Africa. Come listen to learn more about Tesera's High Resolution Inventory Solutions (HRIS), which deploys advanced machine learning and data analytics to produce reliable forestry and natural resource inventories, and Bruce's thoughts on open source technology, forest inventory, and climate and its impact on forest systems. Bruce reminds us that ultimately, sustainability is tied to good information.

Dr. Cassidy Rankine is the Western Canadian Account Executive at Planet and joins us from Vernon, BC to share his thoughts on the state of earth observation (EO) in forestry. With a Ph.D. in remote sensing and forest ecology and succession from the University of Alberta, Dr. Rankine was also the co-founder of a drone startup company prior to joining Planet. Come listen to hear Dr. Rankine's thoughts on how drones have democratized remote sensing, what agile aerospace means, the importance of data fusion and harmonization, Planet's work with sub-50cm Pelican and 400-band hyperspectral Carbon Mapper missions, and why pancakes are ever so important at Planet.

Scot McQueen, Senior Technology Officer at the Forest Stewardship Council, joins us from Olympia, Washington to share with us how he is leveraging technology to drive positive and impactful change in forestry around the world. What does Esri, Planet, Tableau, DocuSign, Amazon Web Services, and Google all have in common? They are part of the FSC Technology Consortium and working together to solve some of the toughest problems in forestry. As an example, come listen to Scot describe how FSC is tackling the chain of custody problem through blockchain technology. You're in for some goosebumps with this one!

Adam Dick is a Science Advisor at the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, Canadian Forest Service and joins us from Fredericton. Adam was one of the champions that brought lidar enhanced forest inventory (EFI) to New Brunswick, which has resulted in the province having wall-to-wall lidar coverage and EFI predictions. From academia, to industry, to provincial and federal government roles, Adam shares his thoughts on his current research focus on digital supply chains in forestry and the opportunities that lie ahead of us. Adam exemplifies how the profile of a forester has evolved to include more digital skills.

Albrecht von Ruffer, CEO of SKYLAB, joins us from Hamburg, Germany. As a biologist by training and an entrepreneur with a successful exit already, Albrecht founded SKYLAB in 2017 to leverage advances that had been made in drone technology and photogrammetry software to solve day-to-day forestry problems. Since then, SKYLAB has developed a web-based SaaS platform powered by AI that can use drone- or satellite-based remotely sensed data for wall-to-wall forest inventory and monitoring. Albrecht reminds us that making stands more productive on a long-term basis is where the value lies.

Dr. Guoliang Liu, President of aiTree Ltd., calls in from China while on a business trip to talk about his journey over the last 30 years bringing his vision of a digital forest to reality. aiTree's Forest Simulation Optimization System (FSOS) technology uses artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing technologies to solve the complicated demand and supply problems. Come listen to learn how Dr. Liu envisions predicting the future using a digital forest that is always running.

Doug Jones, Senior Vice President of Remsoft, joins us from Fredericton, NB to kick off Season 2 of the Digital Forester podcast. Doug shares his thoughts on digital transformation, precision forestry, connected digital supply chains, data standardization and interoperability, analytics and AI, the cloud, and of course, optimization technologies. Come listen to why Doug says that we are in the middle of a forestry revolution.

Gaetan Pelletier is the Executive Director of the Northern Hardwoods Research Institute in Edmundston, New Brunswick. With over 30 years of forestry experience, Gaetan reflects on some of the key technologies that have digitally transformed the forest industry. Lidar, drones, SLAM, and harvester heads are all areas of applied research that excites Gaetan and keeps him from ever considering retirement. With AI “black boxes”, Gaetan reminds us that we still need to be able to explain model outputs and there is no better way of doing that than getting out in the woods.

Mike Sutton is the Manager of Innovation & Research at the Forestry Corporation of NSW in Australia. Mike, who started his career at a time where there was only one satellite in space and where rugged data bricks that could be driven over by cars was considered high-tech, joins us to share his journey with innovation. Have a listen about his work with and thoughts about drones, airborne and UAV lidar, mobile mapping, app development, GNSS, autonomous vehicles, and virtual reality. Mike believes we are not too far away from working at the individual tree given all the technology that is available today.