Abstract

Providing Forest Managers with New Geospatial Tools
Track: Forestry
Authors: Christine Blinn

Workshop materials have been developed to teach foresters how to utilize geospatial products to characterize their landbase. Existing and custom ArcGIS tools are used to calculate and summarize leaf area index (LAI) estimates for pine stands. The LAI toolbox takes a Landsat satellite image as input and creates an LAI image that is then summarized by forest stand boundaries using zonal statistics. Stand based LAI estimates and the comparison of spring and winter LAI estimates help foresters determine where site specific treatments may be needed for fertilization and hardwood competition control. These tools lower the cost and improve the efficiency of forest management by pre-selecting the areas that are in greatest need of treatment(s) and/or require a field visit to determine appropriate action. Training workshops have helped field foresters understand the utility of medium resolution satellite imagery and learn how to incorporate this information into their existing GIS systems.