A Fresh Look At Old Data: New Stand Designer App Turns Tree Measurements Into Interactive 3D Scenes

A new tool from forestry technology developers at Alpine Land Information Services (Alpine LIS) in Redding, CA is promising to change the way that communities interact with local forest management decisions. The new tool, Visual Forester: Stand Designer, uses a data-focused approach to create lifelike digital renderings of forest conditions. 

Walking through a forest and measuring trees by hand has been an essential practice since the dawn of modern forest science. Since the late 18th century, the values associated with forests have changed dramatically, but the tools and measurements have remained the same. Today, the developers at Alpine LIS have breathed new life into this traditional practice by filling in the gap between collecting and understanding forest data.

The Stand Designer software tool utilizes traditional tree measurement data to recreate an immersive 3D scene of the forest that was measured. The methods used allow for millions of existing data records across Western North America to be reinterpreted in a way that people of all backgrounds can understand.

“‘I feel like I’m there’ has been the most frequent response from users so far,” says Johnathan Tenny, project lead for Visual Forester. “With this project, we really want to pull the technical veil away from forestry. We want to make forest management more transparent and help a wide array of people get more in-sync with the decision making that affects their surroundings and their communities.”

The new software tool, Visual Forester: Stand Designer, made its public debut in March. Expect to see more visualizations like these coming soon to a forest near you.

About Alpine LIS and Visual Forester

Alpine LIS has been pioneering forest visualization solutions since the late ‘90s. Since then, our technology has helped land managers across all sectors improve management techniques, communicate with the public, and build trust as land stewards. Our products have also helped bring forestry data to life with dynamic visualizations. Tools from our sub-brand Visual Forester, like Stand Designer, provide solutions to deal with pressing issues in wildlife, fire, sustainability, climate, and carbon for long-term forest planning. They empower people to understand forest data the way they were meant to: by peering curiously into the trees.