Government & Conservation
Local, state, and federal governmental and non-governmental agencies benefit from ImageTree inventory as a central component of their management strategy.
The mission of many agencies include the protection of forestland, conservation easements, and wildlife habitat. ImageTree’s pioneering technology provides land managers the tools necessary to fulfill their objectives, preserving the integrity of forests for present and future generations.
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CONSERVATION • Project Example
"The habitat at P3 is generally uneven-aged and noncontiguous due to previous management practices and natural disturbances that can complicate stand delineation. Wet and often difficult terrain can make fieldwork cumbersome and time consuming. ImageTree helped minimize data- collection time and offered a very precise and objective product. A cost-benefit analysis favors using ImageTree data for large tracts of land and projects that would take months to survey/ sample with traditional methods."
Ryan Speckman, Wildlife Biologist, Dr. J.H. Carter III & Associates, Inc. ( 3.2009 )
Images provided courtesy of The Conservation Fund
The Project
The Conservation Fund is the nation's foremost environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting America's land and water legacy for current and future generations. Since 1985, it has protected more than six million acres, sustaining wild havens, working lands and vibrant communities. Under The Conservation Fund’s ownership is the Palmetto-Peartree Preserve (P3), an 11,500-acre tract in northeastern North Carolina that is home to the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW). The greatest threat to this bird, which has been on the endangered species list for almost four decades, is the loss of mature southern pine forests which comprise the RCW’s nesting and foraging habitat.
To determine how best to manage the P3 timber while protecting the RCW’s foraging and nesting habitat, The Conservation Fund contracted with environmental consultants Dr. J.H. Carter, III & Associates, Inc. (JCA). JCA initiated foraging habitat analyses of each RCW cluster’s foraging habitat partition located on the P3 property. As part of the analyses, The Conservation Fund also engaged ImageTree Corp. to provide a comprehensive crown-based inventory and understory density analysis of the P3 property.
The consultants found that ImageTree decreased the amount of time required to collect stand data from four or five months of fieldwork to one month. Instead of JCA field biologists using sample plots to extrapolate pine stand data, ImageTree technology allowed for a more precise and objective methodology. As a result, the ImageTree data made it easier to identify different pine stands and determine habitat suitability as it pertains to RCW management. JCA staff recognized potential in the future for integrating ImageTree data with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s GIS-based “Matrix” software to streamline the RCW foraging habitat analysis process on large projects.