Infoimaging gives timber grower a closer look at trees

Timbercorp Ltd., Australia's leading agribusiness investment manager, must monitor the health of more than 170,000 acres of timber across parts of Australia. Its most valuable crop is the bluegum, a tree used to manufacture high-quality printing and writing papers. Bluegums are especially susceptible to adverse conditions and require careful monitoring and protection from threats such as beetles, waterlogging, and weeds.

Manual inspections, spot-testing and black-and-white aerial photography have been used to monitor the health of bluegum crops. But black-and-white photographs do not always give the most detailed or accurate information, and manual inspections and spot-testing are costly and time-consuming.

Timbercorp recently used infoimaging solutions to more closely monitor the bluegum trees and identify threats -- such as beetle infestation -- before they spread to the entire crop.

Infoimaging in action

Airesearch Mapping, an Australian provider of high-quality aerial photographs, met with Timbercorp managers to assess their needs. Airesearch used a Leica Systems aerial camera (device) to capture Timbercorp's plantations on Kodak Aerochrome III Color Infrared Film 1443 (media). The advantages were many:

• Color infrared aerial photos can show where tree stocking is below expectations.

• Infrared pictures identify areas that need spraying to control excessive weed growth, and help inventory tree volumes.

• This imaging technique provides greater detail than black-and-white film, and makes it easier to extract more information quickly.

• When analyzed with specialized software (infrastructure) developed by Timbercorp, aerial images allow Timbercorp to automatically inventory its trees.

Infoimaging's impact

Airesearch's use of Kodak Aerochrome color infrared film helped Timbercorp assess field conditions more accurately than ever. The film enabled managers to quickly identify vegetation and water saturation.

The infoimaging solution - high-quality aerial cameras, color infrared film, and Timbercorp's analysis software - provided better information to help Timbercorp make more informed crop-management decisions.