Ever wondered if you should learn a programming language? If so, stick around. In this article, my goal is to present a high-level view of two languages I have found useful in my forestry career for automating repetitive tasks — R and Python. My hope is that someone may have […]
Harvest scheduling is a resource planning process aimed at deciding what areas of the forest (i.e.; stands) to harvest and when. On a small scale, Forest Managers may simply rely on experience, memory, and/or field notes when planning harvests. However, on a larger scale, this is inefficient and highly frowned […]
In 1991, the USDA Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station created a set of stem-profile taper models for 58 southern species and species groups. The Research Paper, known as SE-282, can be downloaded here. The research demonstrates how profile models are used to “predict stem diameter at any height” and […]
Data can come from internal or external sources. In many cases, companies need access to data that is not provided by the ongoing operation of the business. For example, forestry businesses may rely on products and applications developed using regional timber prices, historical weather patterns, location-based services, or market indices. […]
In this post we will journey on an expedition to explore a forestry dataset using Data Science tools available in Python. Python is an Object-Oriented programming language commonly used in the Geospatial and Data Science fields. As an example scenario, we will work with two datasets that resemble common Stand […]
Machine Learning (ML) is one of the new buzz words in the field of Data Science. I see machine learning articles, tutorials, and blog posts on websites and LinkedIn almost daily. So what is it, and does it have realistic applications for the forest industry now, or is it just […]
Foresters occasionally use inexpensive consumer grade GPS units for simple mapping tasks and navigation in the field. Many of these, such as the Garmin GPS Map series, retail for less than $300. I have owned several of these Garmin units myself , and have found them to be an invaluable […]
Thanks to companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google, the modern company is familiar with terms such as “The Cloud” and “Big Data”. With new analytical tools and faster processing capabilities, companies are rethinking their business processes to take advantage of massive amounts of public and private data that are available? But […]
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