Back in the pre-internet days, most aerial imagery came from actual physical photographs that had to be ordered through some state of federal agency. There was no zoom function and nothing to pan. Trying to make out details involved using either a steroscope or a magnifying glass. Land cover types were delineated with a paper overlay and a pencil and acreages were determined using dot-grids. We’ve come a long way.
The age of digital imaging didn’t come about into the 2000s as storage devices became more efficient and as internet speeds increased. Suddenly, those hard photographs became readily available online. While this made things much easier, they still had issues in resolution. Additionally by this time, they also showed landscape features that were sometimes no longer accurate due to development or other changes in land use.
Now days, more and more images are available, and are more up to date.
To contrast the differences, here are two images of a planted stand of loblolly pine. The first being a color-infrared image from 1994, the other a color photo from 2006. Both are at the same scale.
There’s a huge contrast in quality. Better quality means better information. Better information means better management.
Those older photographs aren’t totally valueless. They serve as a bench mark, so to speak, of what the landscape was like prior to the newer images. It’s a great way to show landowners just how quickly trees and timber can grow, either after a timber harvest or when fields are abandoned. The two photos above also serves as an example in this regard. It’s apparent that this particular landowner converted part of the loblolly stand back into a cleared agricultural field.
As technological gains continue, the practice of forestry will continue to produce information that is more accurate and information that allows for greater efficiency. This means more profits, and less losses.
Nathan Green
Owner/Consulting Forester
N. R. Green Resource Consulting, LLC
N. R. Green Resource Consulting, LLC 