Tech Report
Planning the future of our precious forests includes major decisions that will have far-reaching consequences.
Needless to say, forest planning must take into account a ton of information and requires keen insight to make the best decisions. Visual Forester is a new project from Alpine Land Information Services, a forestry consulting company that collects, analyzes, and visualizes forest data.
They understand that, for most of us, it’s difficult to understand a forest plan through wordy descriptions and data tables. We are visual creatures who understand and retain best when we can see the data actualized in 3D form.
Therefore, the Visual Forester team has created a variety of tools, techniques, and assets that make the most of forest data–information like tree size, tree species, and forest density.
Once you’ve plugged in all relevant information into this advanced visualization tool, Visual Forrester produces an immersive 3D computer rendering that represents those conditions. Combine this with other forest planning tools and existing data sources and you get a full visualization of past, present, and planned future conditions in forests across the western U.S. Visualization is key in putting forth greater awareness of the state of our forests.
Visual Forester supplements existing methods in forestry to fill in gaps in communication. Now, foresters can communicate more effectively than ever with landowners, recreationists, wildlife specialists, indigenous leadership, students, and other community members.
As with any profession, better communication leads to better decisions. With Visual Forester, discussions about forestry practice can become more productive and provide better outcomes from active management.
Visual Forester provides unique, practical, and cost-effective visualization solutions which improve communication in forest planning at all levels, from small family forests to large public forests.
To find out more about this incredible forest planning tool, head over to VisualForester.com.
