Purdue University: Purdue launches new AI-based global forest mapping project. “[Jingjing] Liang is developing an artificial intelligence model that will combine information collected about billions of trees measured on-site with satellite and other geospatial data to map local forest growth rates throughout the global forest range.”
TechRadar Pro: How Singapore is turning to tech to keep tabs on its trees. “In order to create more of a connection all of the two million trees are also listed online on the TreesSG online database(opens in new tab). Users can access the database to find trees near them, report any issues they might have spotted, and even email the trees to say thank you for the natural benefits they bring.” Or if you’re nearby you could just tell the tree to its bark. I mean, it isn’t going anywhere barring an unfortunate occurrence.
University of Western Australia: Race against time to find Indigenous boab bark art. “Researchers are working with a group of First Nations Australians in some of the roughest terrain on Earth to document ancient art in the bark of boab trees. Carvings in the boab trees tell the stories of the king brown snake (or Lingka) Dreaming in a remote area of the Tanami Desert, which straddles the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.”
Purdue University: Purdue team introduces advance in automatic forest mapping technology. “How lightning travels from the sky to the ground inspired the concept behind a new algorithmic approach to digitally separate individual trees from their forests in automatic forest mapping.”
Pix 11: New NYC Parks tool helps you find fall foliage. “NYC Parks has created the #FallForNYC Fall Foliage Tracker, a website that tracks popular trees’ colors…. From Maple, to Sweetgum, to Ginkgo trees, the tracker is going to be able to tell you all about the different kinds of species of trees you’ll find in the city and when they’re expected to be at their peak.”
Daily Inter Lake: Saving the history carved into landscape of Canada’s Waterton Lakes National park. “Archaeologists and preservationists are working together to record information on a group of culturally modified trees (CMT) in Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park. Using cutting edge laser scanning technology, archaeologists with the University of Calgary have created an extremely detailed model of the human-carved trees surrounding the original site of a cabin once inhabited by Waterton Lakes’ first park ranger, John George ‘Kootenai’ Brown.”
New York Times: How Tree Rings Helped Identify a Rhode Island Whaler Lost at Sea. “New research, published last month in the scholarly journal Dendrochronologia, allowed researchers to identify the shipwreck to a high degree of certainty, said Ignacio Mundo, the lead author and an adjunct researcher with the Dendrochronology and Environmental History Laboratory at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Mendoza, Argentina. The finding was possible because of the analysis of a kind of fingerprint of the ship itself: The rings on its wooden planks and futtocks, or curved timber pieces.”
Phys .org: Research partnership launches new, improved Alien Forest Pest Explorer. “Purdue University and the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday (July 12) announced the new and improved Alien Forest Pest Explorer interactive web tool. The user-friendly dashboard combines information from multiple sources to show the impact of different forest insects and diseases, and the potential for further damage. The interactive and customizable dashboards are the first to overlay this pest data with related data about the status and health of the host tree species in the forest…”
BBC: New map of ancient trees an opportunity for conservation. “A new map shows there could be around two million trees with exceptional environmental and cultural value previously unrecorded in England. That’s ten times as many as currently on official records. This tree-map is sounding a rare note of optimism in the conservation world. But the Woodland Trust charity warns that these trees – known as ancient or veteran specimens – have ‘almost no’ legal protection.”
Governor of Hawaii: DLNR News Release: Kaulunani Urban And Community Forestry Program Announces Hawaiʻi Tree Canopy Viewer. “The first tree canopy viewer is now available in Hawaiʻi for communities to use to explore tree resources and make management decisions. The interactive viewer shows the extent and location of the tree canopy across the state.”
The Mainichi: Tokyoites asked to refrain from cherry blossom parties even after quasi-emergency lifted. “The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will call for people in the capital to continue implementing basic coronavirus infection prevention measures thoroughly and refrain from gathering to see cherry blossoms as part of responses to be taken after the quasi-state of emergency ends across Japan on March 21.”
Chronicle (Luxembourg): Luxembourg, Wallonia Launch Web App for Forest Adaptation to Climate Change. “The Nature and Forest Agency of Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development has announced the launch of a new web application dedicated to forestry adaptation to climate change… Developed in partnership with the Walloon Region in Belgium, this is a decision-making tool for forest managers and owners in the context of forest adaptation to climate change.”
Google Blog: Explore resilience in the face of the California wildfires. “Through detailed 3D models of famed redwood trees, archival photographs, and multimedia stories from Park employees, you can now explore Resilience of the Redwoods on Google Arts and Culture. Travel through time at California’s first park from the budding preservation movement to Park Rangers’ connections to the trees today. Through interactive 3D, explore centuries of scars and growth of some of the oldest trees in the park and learn about the increasing impacts of fire on the ancient redwood habitat.”
Phys .org: Researchers develop global timber tree barcoding library. “In a study published in Molecular Ecology Resources, researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators constructed a comprehensive barcode library using four commonly used barcodes (rbcL, matK, trnH–psbA, and ITS2), representing 1,550 commercially traded timber species (656 genera across 124 families) from China and internationally.”
New York Times: Timber Poachers Set a Forest on Fire. Tree DNA Sent One to Prison.. “Prosecutors said this was the first time that such evidence had been used in a federal criminal trial, although it has been used in state cases and in federal cases that did not reach trial. Researchers hope this will deter future poaching, particularly of bigleaf maples, for which there is now a large database.”
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