Benefits of the Partnership

The Digital Forest Affiliates program at the University of Idaho is a key part of the larger Forest Innovations Institute. It is designed as a dynamic, collaborative network dedicated to advancing “digital forestry”. The core mission goes beyond isolated research projects; it is to form longstanding, mutually beneficial partnerships to tackle 21st-century forestry challenges. Current forest inventory programs have relied on time tested sampling methodologies but technology, and the rapid increase in labor costs have changed that dynamic. Today census level datasets enabled primarily by LiDAR scanning are quickly displacing our legacy systems and being able to build, manage, and most importantly deploy these data is something we need to work together on.

Benefits include:

Reduced Costs: Our team has extensive experience building enterprise scale systems across North America. Blending extensive industry experience with leaders in forest research and data sciences our team can help you reduce the cost of building a digital forest and lead you to early success. In addition our partnership rates are very affordable for a reason, we want YOU to join our partnership and we don’t want cost to be a limiting factor.

Applied Solutions: By drawing expertise from various specialized U of I units, the Affiliates focuses on creating practical solutions for complex issues like LiDAR acquisition, tree segmentation, GIS data model development, and analytic tools that allow all users to answer today’s real world questions.

Software Tools: We are developing new tools every day, some of these tools will help you if you are doing your own data processing, others will help you even if you buy your trees from one of our partners. We already have tools that can jump start your effort including:
– Irregular Tiling Tool to help minimize artifacts from segmentation
– Tree Viewer to help you see what your trees look like in ArcGIS Pro or web-deployed environment.
– ArcGIS Pro plugin to automate and speed data processing steps
– Many more to come

Influence Research Direction: Affiliate members have a formal mechanism to influence research priorities, ensuring ongoing relevance and impact that directly supports the economic vitality and environmental health of our forests and communities.

Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry: The program ensures that cutting-edge research is grounded in real-world needs and opportunities identified by partners, including private landowners, industry specialists, tribal governments, and public land management agencies.

Rapid Technology Transfer: The affiliation network acts as a conduit for moving the latest scientific discoveries and digital tools—such as LiDAR, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence from the lab to practical application in your environment.

Building the Future Workforce: A critical component is the hands-on training and development of the next generation of forestry professionals. Students, from freshmen to post-docs work side by side with our staff to learn all aspects of modern biometrics and data processing ensuring they graduate equipped with advanced technical skills and a strong scientific foundation, ready to meet current workforce demands.