GNA Spotlight, Idaho, December 2024
December 2024
Authored by Jon Songster, Bureau Chief - GNA, Idaho Department of Lands
The Good Neighbor Authority North Zone Revegetation project was designed to collaboratively innovate new approaches to the Salmon-Challis National Forest’s (SCNF) backlog of reforestation needs, caused by decades of landscape-scale wildfires.
The project area is located in Lemhi County, Idaho on the North Zone of the SCNF. Idaho Department of Lands contracted with a forestry technology company, Aerotract, and worked with a SCNF silviculturist to manage the project. Using a combination of aerial surveys and machine learning, the pilot project was able to accomplish regeneration surveys on more than 10,000 acres burned in the 2012 Mustang Fire. Preliminary imagery and data which recognize seedlings greater than one foot tall and generate trees per acre statistics for each unit are very promising in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Using unmanned aerial systems, or drones, is also a safer option than sending forestry technicians to remote and steep locations.
For more information, contact Jon Songster.