Jackson, MS – The Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions is pleased to announce that member company Forest One, Inc., in collaboration with the Texas Forest Service, is addressing Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) infestations for the USDA Forest Service using sophisticated software tools and satellite imagery.   The project, funded by a USDA Forest Service research grant, will provide an automated, cost-effective and more accurate means of identifying forest mortality and the likelihood of SPB outbreaks. 

 “In the past, the limitations of technology forced the forest industry and public agencies to be very reactionary to SPB outbreaks – in other words, an outbreak is seen then those involved try to do something about it.  However, once you can see a SPB infected tree it is usually too late - the beetles have done their damage and moved on to another location” stated Clark Love, CEO of Forest One.  “Our research focuses on using modern remote sensing techniques and an advanced decision support system to allow the Texas Forest Service, other state agencies, the U.S. Forest Service, and private land owners to be much more proactive by identifying the likely areas of SPB outbreak before they occur and performing steps to reduce the risk in those areas.” 

 The SPB is recognized as one of the most destructive insect pests of forests in the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America.  The beetle can be found from Pennsylvania to Texas and from New Mexico and Arizona to Nicaragua.  Due to its rapid population growth during periodic outbreaks with large numbers of trees killed, this insect causes more concern for southern pine forest managers than any other insect pest.  SPB outbreaks have increased in frequency, severity, and distribution during the past 30 years.  On average, the SPB causes approximately $100 million of damage a year across the Southeast. 

 The most practical approach to addressing this critical issue is maintaining forests in a vigorous, healthy condition.  To do this, forest managers need a reliable means of predicting where infestations are most likely to occur, enabling “preventive maintenance”.  The Texas Forest Service developed one of the first Southern Pine Beetle hazard rating maps at the landscape level.  The accuracy of the maps was limited because the largely manual process of analyzing the imagery restricted them to a small sample of the available imagery.  Also, this imagery was only available on 5-10 year intervals so updated risk maps were not frequent enough. To overcome these problems, Forest One is combining satellite imagery with its cutting-edge software to develop timely digital SPB hazard/risk maps.  Forest One has developed Timber Age MapTM - a spectral-data mining tool which layers satellite data from the last 30+ years and extracts age of forestland. The patent pending algorithm uses statistics-based operations to analyze multiple satellite images.

 “At Forest One, we have calibrated the algorithm with large number of ground-truth points across the Southeast over the last four years and can now generate a very accurate Timber Age MapTM without any added calibration” stated Dr. Joon Heo, CTO of Forest One. “This translates to cost savings for our clients because it eliminates the need to conduct additional ground verification or calibration yet provides for a very accurate product layer”.

 Timber Age MapTM will allow Forest One to analyze every acre across the landscape, preventing the sampling problem, and creating a hazard rating for every individual tract of timber across the Texas landscape.  In addition to forest age, the SPB risk map will also factor in soil type, species composition, canopy closure, elevation/relief, and several other data sets into a complex modeling system, making the risk map quite comprehensive and as accurate as possible.  Furthermore, by using satellite imagery and the modeling system there will be frequent updates to the SPB risk maps, making it a much more effective tool for fighting SPB.  
The partnership between Forest One and the Texas Forest Service brings a unique blend of capabilities to address this critical issue.  The Texas Forest Service pioneered the development and application of the technique of Southern Pine Beetle hazard and risk mapping at the landscape level.  Forest One has extensive expertise in remote sensing techniques and delivering GIS data layers over the Internet.  One of the outcomes of this project will be a GIS-based web site which will deliver SPB hazard maps in an interactive manner to forest landowners and other interested parties.

The project will initially cover the forested areas of east Texas including all of Angelina, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Shelby, and Panola counties, as well as portions of Cherokee, Houston, and Trinity counties.  Forest One intends to extend the research product across the entire Southeast pine growing belt and would like to see a risk map created for the southeastern U.S.

Forest One is an information technology company that provides consulting services, applications development, and software to Forest Products, Environmental, and Land Management organizations.  A member of the EIGS Geospatial Industry Cluster, Forest One offers extensive GIS and Remote Sensing experience.   Forest One has offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Itasca, Illinois.  For more information about Forest One, contact Clark Love at 601- 594-0479, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.forestone.com.

Contact: 
Clark Love, Forest One       
601-594-0479
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