Considering adding a drone to your tree care toolkit? Here’s what you need to know about this small, but mighty, flying machine.
Drones Take to the Skies How these small machines increase efficiency and reduce risk in tree care work From seedling inventory to mapping and marketing, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are pulling their weight in the forestry and tree care industries
By Mara Watts
drones to conduct seedling inventories to ensure production goals are being met and to check on the value of re- generation across national forests. “This work has always been done man- ually,” says Olivia Fraser, a national reforestation and nursery systems analyst with the US Department of Ag- riculture Forestry Service (USDA.) “It’s really time-consuming and physically demanding. The use of drones makes this more efficient and helps us in- crease capacity.” Considering adding a drone to your tree care toolkit? Here’s what you need to know about this small, but mighty, flying machine. DRONES ON THE RISE Although drones are oen thought to be a new and modern technological ad- vancement, aerial vehicles have been in existence for quite some time. Dat- ing back to the early 1900s, aerial ve- hicles were used by the USDA and US military for agriculture purposes, such as crop dusting, seed spreading, and
For more than a century, technology and tree care have grown together. From portable chainsaws to sophisti- cated machinery, the tree care and for- estry industries are constantly seeking new and novel advancements to save time, money, and effort. When it comes to monitoring tree health, conducting inspections and sur- veys, and improving employee safety measures, many companies are adopt- ing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, into their cur- rent operations. “Drones have many uses in the forest- ry and tree care industry,” says Sean Henry, a research technician and me- dia and audio-video support specialist with Bartlett Tree Experts . “From tree health care to invasive insect detec- tion to general mapping and imagery, drones are quickly making their way more and more into the corporate world.” In forestry work, drones are used to ad- dress a reforestation backlog, primar- ily caused by wildfires. Analysts use
A Bartlett Tree Experts employee operates a DJI drone to gain a bird’s eye view from above.
crop protection.
Later, UAVs and camera drones were introduced. In the 1980s, research was conducted on weeds found in oilseed crops, using aerial imagery from a camera strapped to a drone. Fast forward to the 21st century, drones have made quite an impact on the agriculture and tree care indus-
Drones can perform tasks such as tree inspections, pest and disease identification and management, collecting and monitoring real-time data, and surveying and mapping.
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