Last month, GBI hosted a drone workshop to support forest stewardship and NEPA planning efforts. GBI co-founders, Jerry Keir and Sanjay Pyare, were re-united, along with several GBI staff, during the half day discussion and field workshop held at the Galena Creek Visitor Center in south Reno. Dr. Pyare provided an overview of varied applications of drone technology, demonstrating the operational capabilities of drone deployment for advanced mapping and forest inventory and assessments. Among the subjects covered were FAA licensing, drone varieties, processing of drone data, and how this technology can be applied. The workshop also demonstrated how landscape models can be generated using imagery captured by drones. Dr. Pyare also identified just a few of the potential ways that drones might be used by the Institute:
- Diagnostic tool / pre-planning
- Landscape change – erosion, succession
- Cultural Resource Inventory, discovery, & visualization
- Prescribed burn effectiveness & recovery
- Invasive Distribution, Monitoring & Treatment Evaluation
- Quantifying forest structure / biomass
- Ground truthing elevation
- Virtual ecological surveys
Drones are widely used as cost-effective solutions for estimating species mix, stand density and available volume and often aid in the compliance monitoring during the implementation of forest projects. The Institute is now exploring certification training opportunities for several foresters as means to expedite the data gathering needs of the permitting and contracting process. Much gratitude to Dr. Pyare who traveled from Alaska where he serves as Associate Professor at University of Alaska Southeast in Environmental Science & Geography Programs & supports the Spatial Ecosystem Analysis Lab (SEALAB).
