All posts by Melinda Olson

8:30        Welcome / Intro – Jacob Strunk, USFS, FIA

8:45        Current status and application of airborne lidar in Canadian forest inventory programs – Piotr Tompalski, Canadian Forest Service

9:15        Individual tree detection and characterization using high-density UAS lidar data – Bob McGaughey, USFS, PNW

9:45        Break / Optional Breakout

10:00     A fast algorithm for estimation of stem dimensions, lean and sweep irrespective the position of the tree – Bogdan Strimbu, OSU

10:30     FVS Growth Projections from Lidar kNN Inventory – Jacob Strunk, USFS, FIA

11:00     Multi-year Photogrammetric Point Cloud QA Approaches – Jonathan Kane, UW, PFC

11:30     Exploring the innovation potential of single photon lidar for large area forest inventories – Joanne White, Canadian Forest Service

12:00     Lunch Break / Optional Discussion Session: Mike Parlow and Cam Brown, ForSite, Individual Tree and Area-Based Tradeoffs with a 15 min presentation on “LiDAR and Satellite for Species Identification”

12:30     Integrating imagery into the lidar classification workflow – Andrew Brenner, QSI

1:00     Assessment of individual tree detection algorithms from Lidar  – Aaron Sparks, Univ. of  Idaho

1:30     Remote Sensing Forest Inventory Modeling Database, DAP Project – Andrew Cooke, Univ. of WA

2:00     Vegetation structure model updates from the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region – Karin Wolken, USFS, R6

2:30     Break / Optional Breakout

3:00     TLS data to estimate aboveground biomass of open-grown urban and rural forest trees – Georgios Areseniou et.al., Mich. State U.

3:30     Improving site index resolution with Lidar and satellite imagery to refine growth model predictions  – Tom Baribault, Mason, Bruce & Girard

4:00     Coarse woody debris detection on the Malheur National Forest using airborne laser scanning  – Laura Dempsey, N. Carolina St. Univ.

4:30     Specifying geospatial data product characteristics for forest and fuel management applications – Arjan Meddens, WA State University

5:00     Adjourn

April 12, 2022

8:00 – 8:15      Workshop Introductions and Overview

8:15 – 10:00    Unit Layout – How to layout a unit

• Different levels of harvest planning
• What is successful skyline harvesting?
• Review cable systems and skyline carriages
• Streams
• Unstable steep slopes

10:00 – 10:15  Break

10:15 – 11:45  Payload, Productivity and efficiency

• Skyline deflection – Safe working Loads
• Factors that influence productivity
• Wire rope characteristics
• Variables affecting skyline deflection

April 13, 2022

8:00 – 10:30    Skyline Logging Landings

• How landing layout affects productivity
• Wood Flow through the landing
• Yarder Guylines
• Stump Anchors
• Multi-Stump Anchors
• Machine Anchors

10:30 – 10:45  Break

10:45 – 11:30  Rigging Tail and Intermediate Trees

• When and where to use
• Design and layout
• Model demonstration
• Field Cards for Unit Layout

11:30 – 12:00        SkylineXL

• Introduction to SkylineXL
• Determining Skyline Payloads

April 15, 2022

8:00 – 9:30      Logging Safety

• What unit layout can do for unit safety
• Review of major watch-out situations

9:30 – 10:00    Break

10:00 – 11:30  Tethered Assist

• A game changer for logging safety?

Sunday, May 22

3:00 – 5:00 pm  Optional Hike

7:00 – 8:30 pm  Optional “Fluid Session”

Monday, May 23 – Peavy Forest Science Center

8:00 am  Registration

9:00 am  Welcome and keynote

10:30 am  Concurrent sessions

12:00 pm  Lunch & tour of the new mass timber Oregon Forest Science Complex

2:00 pm  Concurrent sessions

5:30 pm Adjourn

6:00 pm  Dinner

Tuesday, May 24 – Peavy Forest Science Center

9:00 am  Concurrent sessions

10:30 am  Plenary session and closing

12:00 pm  WFE Membership Meeting & Lunch

1:00 – 5:30 pm  Optional field trip, Mill Tour

5:30 – 7:00 pm Optional dinner

Monday, July 19: Travel day

4:00 – 8:00 Registration (meeting room)
5:30 – 7:00 Icebreaker/Social Food and drinks provided by the hotel in lobby

Tuesday, July 20

6:30 am Continental breakfast
7:00 am Registration table opens

8:00 am Welcome – Mike Fiaoni, GOW Nursery Supervisor and Justine Gartner, MO State Forester

8:45 am Community Forestry Issues and how the nursery can serve urban landowners – Daniel Moncheski

9:30 am Partnership with GOW nursery and serving urban communities – Meridith Perkins, Director of Forest Releaf

10:15 am Morning Break

10:30 am Restoring the Ozark Chinquapin Chestnut trees – Steve Bost

11:15 am Native trees and shrubs for bees and other pollinators – Edward Spevak

12:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm Forest and nursery health issues – Robbie Derhoff, MO Forest Entomologist

1:45 pm Interstate trade and regulations – Collin Wamsley, State Entomologist, MO Dept. of Agriculture

2:15 pm Vendor Introductions

2:40 pm Afternoon break

3:00 pm Laura Dewald, White oak Initiative

3:45 pm Eric Lovelace, Forest Keeling Nursery

4:00 pm Ron Cordsiemon, Plant Materials Center

4:30 pm Meeting of Northeast Nursery Association (Cancelled)
6:15 pm Load bus to head to Butterfly House for dinner banquet
9:00 pm Load bus to head back to hotel

Wednesday, July 21: Field Tour

6:30 am Breakfast
7:45 am Board buses
8:00 am – 10:45 am Travel to GOW State Forest Nursery
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Tour
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Lunch at GOW Nursery
1:00 pm- 2:30 pm Tour
2:30 pm – Load buses to return to hotel
5:15 pm Arrive back at hotel – Dinner on your own

Thursday, July 22: Field Tour

6:30 am – 7:45 am Breakfast
8:00 am Load buses or folks take their own vehicles to Forest Keeling Nursery (FKN)
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Tour Forest Keeling Nursery
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Lunch at FKN
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Tour Plant Materials Center
3:00 pm Load bus and vehicles to head back to hotel or home
4:00 pm Arrive back at hotel

Click here to view/download the 2021 agenda (PDF)

SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2021

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm Happy Hour Drop-in on Zoom, Meet old friends and make new ones – zoom break out rooms will be available for small groups

MONDAY, JUNE 21, 2021

9:00 – 9:05 Meeting opening and overview – Bianca Eskelson

IUFRO session: Linking growth models with remote sensing data – Moderator: Woongsoon Jang

9:05 – 9:25 CanopyShotNoise – An individual-based tree canopy modelling framework for projecting remote-sensing data and ecological sensitivity analysis – Arne Pommerening

9:25 – 9:45 The effects of thinning on crown structure of Scots pine trees – Ninni Saarinen

9:45 – 10:00  Empirical growth models based on repeated laser scans in non managed area – Peter Surovy

10:00 – 10:15 Regeneration survey using inexpensive unmanned aerial systems – Adam Conrad

10:15 – 10:30 Simulating the growth of Larix olgensis and predicting the future change using 3-PGS Model – Yu Bai

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break

IUFRO session continued: Linking growth models with remote sensing data – Moderator: Mathieu Fortin

10:45 – 11:05 LiDAR, Stands, FVS, and Woodstock. Happy Together. – Clara Clark

11:05 – 11:25 Tree-Level monitoring of open canopy forests from UAS structure from motion data – Neal Swayze

11:25 – 11:45  A case study on forest inventory consistency between multitemporal field measurement, LiDAR and growth model – Yuzhen Li

11:45 – 12:00 Coupling LiDAR systems analysis with growth and yield models and diameter distribution models for spatially explicit projections of standing timber in fast growing Eucalyptus plantations – John Kershaw

12:05 – 12:55 Networking sessions during lunch – Bring your own lunch! Additional details listed below in the right column.

Moderator: Lara Melo

13:00 – 13:20 Estimating Douglas-fir site index using a Lidar canopy height model and stand age in western Oregon and western Washington – Donald Gagliasso

13:20 – 13:40 Drivers of productivity differences between Douglas-fir planted within its native range in Oregon and on exotic sites in New Zealand – Liam Gilson

13:40 – 13:55 Crown ratio models for loblolly pine – Krishna Poudel

13:55 – 14:10 Development and testing an algorithm for estimating top height in TASS simulations – Ian Cameron

14:10 – 14:30 Hierarchical Gaussian processes for modeling stand diameter distributions from forest inventory data – Brian Clough

14:30 – 14:45 Coffee break – Surprise! – DO NOT MISS!

Moderator: Andrea Cameron

14:45 – 15:00 Thinning from above or below? Maximizing financial value in Douglas-fir rotations. – Todd West

15:00 – 15:20 How good is the data? – Fred Martin

15:20 – 15:40 Regional modeling of an invasive annual grass in the intermountain Pacific Northwest – Ty Nietupski

15:40 – 15:55 Importance of image pre-processing on the analysis of the imagery acquired with small unmanned aerial systems – Sudeera Wickramarathna

15:55 – 16:00 Closing remarks first day

16:00 – 18:00 Happy Hour Drop-in on Zoom, Meet old friends and make new ones – zoom break out rooms will be available for small groups

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 2021

Moderator: Peter Marshall

9:00 – 9:15  Bridging sampling with covariate designs and rapid biodiversity assessment to estimate local plant species richness – Tzeng Yih Lam

9:15 – 9:35  Decision Space for Field Application of Sector Sampling – Martin Ritchie

9:35 – 9:50 Biomass estimates derived from sector subsampling of 360° spherical images – John Kershaw

9:50 – 10:10  Big trees matter most: Plot optimization for ground-based tropical forest carbon inventories at both country and project scales – Bryan Foster

10:10 – 10:30  Seeing the forest for the clumps: characterizing clumpy regeneration and ladder fuels – Justin Crotteau

10:30 – 10:45  Coffee break

Moderator: Celine Boisvenue

10:45 – 11:05  Post-stratified estimation: Realized and potential efficiency in a national forest inventory – James Westfall

11:05 – 11:20  Improving Forest Sample Estimation through UAS Canopy Structure Stratification – Logan Wimme

11:20 -11:40  Enhanced Forest Inventory using LiDAR data – a hybrid approach – Kat Gunion

11:40 – 11:55  Small area estimation in operational western forest inventories – Corey Green

11:55 – 12:05  Picture taking

12:05 – 12:15  Plans for future years & Closing remarks – Bogdan Strimbu and Bianca Eskelson

For program questions, contact Bianca Eskelson.

Tuesday, March 23rd

7:30 – 8:00 Registration – Check-in

8:00 – 8:10 Welcome and Housekeeping Items

8:10 – 8:50 James A. Moore Keynote Address: Biometrics in the era of remotely sensed forest inventory: Opportunity and Risk – John Paul McTague, Southern Cross Biometrics

8:50 – 9:20 An overview of NAIP photogrammetric point clouds for forest monitoring – Jacob Strunk, Vegetation Monitoring and Remote Sensing Team, PNW FIA, USFS

9:20 – 9:40 Break

9:40 – 10:10 International Spotlight: SKYLAB forest AI – fully digitalised inventories from seedling through vitality to timber and carbon stock utlizing image based photogrammetry – Albrect von Ruffer, Skylab, Hamburg, Germany

10:10 – 10:40 Conifer seedling mortality response thresholds to vegetation competition and site type – Andrew Nelson, University of Idaho

10:40 – 11:00 Break

11:00 – 11:30 Regional Spotlight: Some new findings on loblolly pine plantations from long-term large-scale experimental studies – Dehai Zhao, University of Georgia

11:30 – 12:00 PPDM Update: Ponderosa pine 6-Yr thinning response by site type and density class – Mark Kimsey, IFC

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch (on your own)

1:30 – 2:00 PPDM Update: Western larch 4-Yr thinning response by site type and density class – Mark Kimsey, IFC

2:00 – 2:30 PPDM Update: Physiographic influence on Douglas-fir thinning response – Ryan Heiderman, IFC Scholar

2:30 – 3:00 Break

3:00 – 3:30 Stimson Hidden Meadows Study: Western larch response to thinning and multi-nutrient fertilization – Logan Wimme, IFC Scholar and Don Patterson, Stimson Lumber Company

3:30 – 3:50 New IFC Project Introduction: Douglas-fir woods run vs improved seed site type Realized Gain Trial – Mark Kimsey, IFC

3:50 – 4:00 Meeting wrap-up

Click here to view the 2021 Virtual WR COFE Seminar recordings.

Morning Session Recording:

• Introduction and Announcements – Jeff Wimer, Chair, WR.COFE & OSU FERM Department
• Timber Faller, Rigging Crew and Operator Safety and Health with Tethered Logging Systems and OROSHA Variance Data – John Garland, PE. Consulting Forest Engineer, Professor Emeritus, FERM, Oregon State University, Affiliate Professor, Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, University of Washington
• Slope stability and Forest Practices in Washington: regulations, guidance, FPAs, and roles of the geologist and forest engineer  – Ted Turner, Weyerhaeuser
• Energy Absorbing Cab Guards – Kevin Lyons, Oregon State University
• Timber Cruising with Body Mounted Cameras – Lucas Wells, Holtz Forestry

Recordings of all presentations are available to paid attendees (passwords are required to view the recordings). Please use the form below to contact us with any questions.

Session 1: Wednesday, 12/2/20.

Oregon has approved 1 Core Credit and 1 Regular Credit for this session. Credits have been applied for. Anticipating 1 credit from each: Idaho and Washington State per Session 1.

9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Human and Environmental Toxicology of Pesticide Formulations and Spray Adjuvants – Allan Felsot, Professor, Department of Entomology, Washington State University

What is the physical chemistry of adjuvants such as surfactants and why they are needed for biological activity? This presentation will provide a review of the regulatory aspect of pesticide formulations and spray adjuvants under State and Federal laws. Dr. Felsot will answer the questions: What are the environmental hazards and human health hazards with adjuvants? and How PPE such as gloves can mitigate most of the health risk.

10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Elk Hoof Disease Research at WSU On Treponema and Forest Vegetation Needs for Large Forest Ungulates – Margaret Wild, DVM, PhD, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University and Kyle Garrison, Ungulate Specialist, Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

In 2018 the Washington Legislature allotted funds for the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine to study the problem of elk hoof disease. Dr. Wild directs this project and will provide an update on the findings to date. Project studies include pathogen research around treponema, controlled experiments with captive elk, disease surveillance, and investigating the risk factors in wild elk.

Kyle Garrison will review the research on the forage values of vegetation for elk and the changes made in those plant communities after timber harvest. Comparisons of forage with or without herbicide treatment will be described. In this presentation, Kyle will discuss the relationships among silviculture, elk habitat, nutrition, and disease informed by recent research in the Pacific Northwest.

Session 2: Thursday, 12/3/20.

Oregon has approved 2 Regular Credits. Credits have been applied for. Anticipating 2 credits from each: Idaho and Washington State per Session 2.

9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Water Use and Competitiveness of Senecio sylvaticus in Young Pseudotsuga menziesii Plantations in Western Oregon – Carlos Gonzalez-Benecke, Vegetation Management Research Cooperative, Oregon State University

Senecio species are a nemesis for reforestation projects throughout the Pacific Northwest and this research shows the species impact on seedling survival and growth. Senecio densities varied across the research sites and comparisons were made for soil moisture depletion and competition with the Douglas fir seedlings.

10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Interactive Effects of Stock Size and Vegetation Management Treatments on Douglas-fir Plantation Productivity – Maxwell Wightman, Vegetation Management Research Cooperative, Oregon State University

This presentation will cover the 10-year results of comparing the interaction of seedling stock size and forest vegetation management treatments in Western Oregon. Three seedling stock types and three vegetation management regimes were studied. The tree seedling growth and volumes were measured as were the long-term effect of the cover of shrubs on these sites.

Session 3: Tuesday, 12/8/20.

Oregon has approved 1 Core Credit and 1 Regular Credit. Credits have been applied for. Anticipating 2 credits from Idaho and Washington State per Session 3.

9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Noxious Weed Control: Identification, IVM Control Methods, Communicating with a Skeptical Public – Dana Coggon, Program Manager, Kitsap County Noxious Weed Control Board

Dana will discuss the control of weeds such as Japanese Knotweed, Tansy Ragwort, Giant Hogweed, Scotch Broom and other species. Kitsap County is across Puget Sound from Seattle and includes Bainbridge Island, a rather wealthy bedroom community where many people commute to Seattle via ferry. Dana maintains her program plans and funding by communication with governmental leaders and other agencies, plus manages the field work crew. She employs the use of weed hand pulling, stem injections, spot foliar backpack spray, and broadcast treatments in a suburban environment.

10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Herbicide Tank Mixtures and Toxicology – Vickie Tatum, Forest Chemical Program Manager, National Council of Air and Stream Improvement

While resource managers understand the toxicology and envirotoxicology of many of the herbicides used in forestry, there are often questions about tank mixes. Do tank mixes of different chemicals change the toxicity of the combinations? Vickie will share information on this subject so foresters can better understand and communicate tank mixes with the public as well as applicators.

Session 4: Wednesday, 12/9/20.

Oregon had approved 1 Core Credit and 1 Regular Credit. Credits have been applied for. Anticipating 2 credits from Idaho and Washington State per Session 4.

9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Noxious and Invasive Weed Identification and Mapping – Wyatt Williams, Invasive Species Specialist, Oregon Department of Forestry

Wyatt will outline the Oregon Department of Forestry system for the surveillance, mapping, and monitoring of noxious and invasive weed species in forest settings. Planning for control and eradication is important element in any vegetation management project. Integrated vegetation control will be stressed along with control options.

10:30 to 11:30 a.m. The Art of Measuring Pesticides and an Update on PPE Requirements – Carol Black, Pesticide Education Specialist, Washington State University

The accuracy of measuring is important for efficacy, preventing unwanted damage, and saving the investment in the cost of chemicals. Most products have wiggle room, but some measuring devices can lead applicators astray. A review of formulations types and measuring devices will be given. An update on Personal Protective Equipment label changes will be reviewed for some of the common forest herbicides.

Click here to view speaker abstracts.

Click here to view the 2021 Virtual WR COFE Seminar recordings.

8:15 Introduction and Announcements – Jeff Wimer, Chair, WR.COFE & OSU FERM Department

8:30  Timber Faller, Rigging Crew and Operator Safety and Health with Tethered Logging Systems and OROSHA Variance Data – John Garland, PE. Consulting Forest Engineer, Professor Emeritus, FERM, Oregon State University, Affiliate Professor, Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, University of Washington (abstract)

9:15  Slope stability and Forest Practices in Washington: regulations, guidance, FPAs, and roles of the geologist and forest engineer  – Ted Turner, Weyerhaeuser (abstract)

10:00  Energy Absorbing Cab Guards – Kevin Lyons, Oregon State University

10:45 Timber Cruising with Body Mounted Cameras – Lucas Wells, Holtz Forestry

11:30 Break

Tethered Logging Update