Communications via satellite are changing the way the forest industry harvests trees. A new approach being tested by ESA combines satcoms and cellular services to relay important information almost immediately so that fewer trees are used to produce more timber.

Irish company Treemetrics, in cooperation with ESA, is developing Satmodo, a new system that provides realtime communications with the harvesting machines and their drivers.

Managers can now send instructions directly to computers in the vehicles via satellite, instructing operators how to cut to make the best use of the trees.

All trees are not created equal. Some are more suited to be used to make pulp, while others are better suited as ‘sawlogs’ – for cutting into timber in a sawmill, making them more valuable.

Such trees are greater in diameter, straighter and have fewer knots. Cutting down valuable sawlog trees for producing pulp is a waste and reduces the crop’s worth.

Treemetrics had already designed a new way to assess the value of a timber crop before harvest using 3D laser scanners to measure the shape, size and straightness of standing trees.

From Red Orbit: https://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112506310/trees-tell-their-story-to-satellites/