Watch what you do in your back yards, because we can see you," one speaker warned guests at the annual Field Day at the Texas A&M Research Station at Overton, Texas on June 19.

The presenter at the all-day event themed "Precision Forestry," was speaking of the detailed information available to forest workers today based on imaging from commercial and U.S. government satellites.

Experts from the Agricultural Research and Extension center explained how using remote sensing applications like the new global positioning systems can be used in forestry. Interestingly, proof of such accuracy was shown in the search for debris from the shuttle disaster on February 1, 2003.

Jason Grogan, a research Associate in forest management told the crowd that the overall accuracy of such equipment is very good. He explained how a four-county study of forest in Texas had used government satellite technology to get a view of the land in each county.

By using maps from earlier times, they could ascertain where trees had been planted or where "parking lots" had taken the place of forests.

"We plan to use this technology every five years to see how much is planted, how much harvested and how much is taken out of trees," said Grogan. He explained landowner application for GPS use, telling them the products were easy to use and accurate.

However, remote sensing has not replaced all the old methods, said Dean Coble, Assistant Professor of Forest Biometrics at Stephen F. Austin State University at Nacogdoches. A correct tree tally is extremely important, he said.

For an example, Coble used a hundred-acre plot where one 12 inch, 4 log pine tree was missed in the tally. Basing his figures on $350 MBF, he explained that the land owner lost $2,763 for missing that tree. With the new instruments like the Haglof Vortex III, tallying can be more accurate, according to those who spoke at the field day.

Lin Risner, Deputy Regional Forester, Texas Forest Service gave the audience an update on the shuttle recovery effort and the use of global positioning instruments in doing so.

Risner covered the 91 days of searching over East Texas and West Louisiana. Through slides, he showed the moment of impact caught on Doppler Radar.

"Our major goals were public safety, to recover the crew, retrieve evidence and compensate costs to local jurisdictions," Risner stated.

By using global positioning equipment, the area of debris was mapped and then searched by grids. In the first two weeks, all seven bodies of the astronauts were recovered.

"The area was treated as a crime scene," Risner told the group. "Each item recovered was documented, photographed and then taken to a facility for handling," he said. Each piece was then shipped to Kennedy Air Force base where crews are attempting to reconstruct the shuttle in order to discover what went wrong.

The searchers covered 2,300,000 acres of rural, wooded land. Crews answered 12,000 calls about debris. They walked through swamps, briar patches, fields enclosing brahma bulls, found hornets, fire ants, and most unusual, what was called an armadillo trap. Searchers walked up on a .12 gauge shotgun attached to a trip wire. Other searchers were accidentally sprayed by a crop duster distributing chicken house litter.

In all, 82,565 pieces of the shuttle were located, including the nose cone which was four feet underground.

In the afternoon, everyone was invited to use the hand-held instruments that calculate the distance between trees and height of trees. Simple and easy to use, the instruments were light, fitting into the palm of the hand, with digital readouts. Most run on regular batteries and have a long life. With one piece of equipment placed at the height of 4 and one half feet, each participant was allowed to walk away from the tree, press a button and wait for the distance to read out. Then with another press of a button, raising the instrument to tree top, the height was read out.

For an entire day, organizers at the field day showed forest landowners professional tools they can use to grow better timber and make better profits.

Back