What Is The Future For Forestry?

Jan 25, 2023 - 2 years ago

Drones, Digital Tracking and Driverless Trucks All Part of Forestry's Future.
By Jean Sorenson for Truck LoggerBC.

Drones, digital tracking of log loads, and even driverless trucks are all part of the future technologies being explored by a changing forest industry as it copes with the demands of a shrinking fibre base, increased productivity needs, labour shortages, and de-carbonization of the forest industry.

What Is The Future For Forestry? — *Photo: Mathias / Pixabay*

Three forest industry professionals, Calvin Lee, operations engineer (Teal-Jones Group), Melinda Morben, RPF, senior manager logistics, (Mosaic Forest Management) and President and CEO Stéphane Renou (FPInnovations) will make up the panel session discussing The Future of Technology and Use in the Forest Sector at the TLA’s 78th Annual Convention + Trade Show in January. The panel will be moderated by Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer.

“Technology is important because it can increase the efficiency of the work we do and improve our accuracy,” said Lee, who has been working over the past year with the Teal-Jones Group to integrate drone technology into the company. With drones able to travel at 70 kilometres an hour maximum speed and send visual images and photos to a ground-based computer, these remote-controlled aerial devices are proving a lofty alternative to boots on the ground.

Lee, who has an interest in photography and different technologies that allow for aerial photography, first began using drones three or four years ago on his hiking trips. He would take his drone with him as he travelled for work in Northern BC and Alberta and soon realized their potential in forestry applications. When he joined Teal-Jones in March 2021, the company had several drones but no one with the skills to deploy them. It was a fit; management was open, and Lee was eager.

“We started with the most basic functions of the drone,” Lee said as the rotor drones flew over planted areas that had been brushed, sending back images. The drones have the ability to fly both high and low. Low gave a perspective of not only the tree height but a close-up of problem areas that had been spotted at higher elevations. The problem area images could then be further evaluated and, if needed, crews could be sent in to address any ground issues that remained. These problem areas could also be plotted on a map and serve as a future reference guide.

Lee said the efficiency of the drones (which can fly two to three kilometres) is such that up to five blocks can be evaluated in as little as half a day while the conventional method of walking through a block to evaluate replanted or brushed areas was about two blocks a day.

“I do not think it replaces the need to hike in the block,” said Lee of a drone’s collected information. “But rather, it complements it. Rather than wandering around looking for problems, it narrows down where you should be looking.”

Teal-Jones has also looked at drone technology on the harvesting side. Drones are able to take photos of tree species and gauge some indication of their height—depending upon the program used—although the technology isn’t as thorough as LiDAR. Lee said that these aerial photos “can be stitched together” to form a panoramic view of a block. Such information is not only valuable for planning but can also serve as a reference in the event of a natural disaster such as an atmospheric river that washes out a roadway. “The photos can tell how a road might have looked,” he said.

Drone technology also has benefits on the operations side of harvesting as a supervisor can collect information on how much work is left in a cutblock by an operator, where logs are, and even how much slash is being left on the ground. Again, it is a guide to areas where more focused supervision is required.

The drone also plays a role in providing a safe environment for forest workers, especially if they have to enter an area where slopes may be unstable, roads and bridges are washed out or blocked by debris or fallen timber.

“They can also be used for bridge inspction,” he said. Teal-Jones used the drones to view the underside of the middle span of a bridge, rather than pulling in a specialized lift truck that could place a man under the span to examine joints. “We had an engineer on site,” Lee said, who looked at images and based on what the drone was seeing made a decision on whether further work was needed.

While drones can gather both targeted and overview information, helping forest professionals make informed decisions, technology can also be utilized to make better decisions on a company’s supply and transportation sides.

Senior manager, logistics for Mosaic Forest Management, Melinda Morben, RPF, is utilizing technology to better manage the company’s land-based supply chain activities. Daily operations consist of harvesting activities with over 23 specific technology deployments that support 250 log trucks, dry-land sorts and export terminals and loading operations.

“We have quite a few programs that are being implemented from our engineering and harvesting phases right through to our processing, hauling and facilities,”

“There are significant benefits that can be gained by using technology in industrial operations,” said Morben. Utilizing and developing technology can lead to enhanced safety, sophisticated management decisions, greater efficiencies, and productivity gains in the supply chain, which all translate into improved competitiveness and sustainability for a company.

“It can also compensate for labour shortfalls,” she said. “We don’t have a large pool of new people coming into the industry.”

One of the areas where Morben has focused her efforts to develop and implement technology to achieve greater benefits is in the company’s trucking fleet, where using telematics and creating a software application has enabled the ability to convert fragmented log hauling operations into a centralized dispatch program.

“In an area of our business that is highly safety sensitive and interfaces directly with the public, it is of the greatest importance for our business that we focus on safe, well-planned and efficient log hauling operations,” she said.

Complementary to the centralized dispatch program, Morben has also led the team to create and implement Mosaic’s own electronic load description slip application to eliminate time spent by operators and drivers writing information out for load details.

“They spend less time on paperwork and have a quick and easy-to-use application which makes it much smoother for them to create their load tickets and spend their time focused on safely hauling logs,” she said.

The live input of information such as location and the unit entered by the driver also enables the company to track the truck, the load, and destination in real time.

The system is only one of a number that Mosaic is implementing for their digital, supply-chain side transformation. “We have quite a few programs that are being implemented from our engineering and harvesting phases right through to our processing, hauling and facilities,” Morben said, as they target elements within the supply chain where visibility of data will form the basis of strategic decision making.

“We are working to synchronize our programs,” she said, as they aim to develop the digital path of fibre moving within the company. “This [comprehensive overview] helps us with our ability to forward plan,” she said.

Sustainability and climate change are also areas that Mosaic is interested in and Morben is exploring ways of reducing the company’s carbon footprint from trucking. She was instrumental in forging a partnership with a dealer to trial electric logging trucks within Mosaic’s operations.

Morben, who is a member of the Log Truck Technical Advisory Committee said, “it is important for companies to test out new technology as different forest industry challenges emerge.” Morben said that companies must “always be open to learning and contributing to the development of new innovations to move our industry forward together.”

The forest industry is evolving but needs to embrace more change. “Change is needed right across the value chain,” said Stéphane Renou, president and CEO of FPInnovations. That change encompasses a scope that goes from trees planted to bio-refineries.

“The Nordic countries extract more metres of wood per hectares [than Canada],” he said, adding that the increase in fibre captured is tied to intensified forest practices, the species planted, and how cutblock roads are laid out to gain transportation efficiencies. While Canada has tougher terrain, there still exists the potential to expand intensive forestry efforts to increase yields and at the other end of the process find new value-added products.

In Europe, bio-refineries are heralding change as both residuals and marginal wood are being utilized to produce higher-valued biofuels and domestic components.

“People think there is one magic bullet that will solve the problem,” he said, adding that it is not a simple solution but a major shift in forest practices, wood utilization, and value-added products.

“It has changed the game dramatically,” he said, as the higher valued items shift the economics of utilization of fibre and what can be trucked out of the woods.

BC has made some strides in mass timber construction as the various panels are now being used in high-rise construction, the result of engineering innovation and code changes. “The market in BC has made progress in evolution,” he said. “But it needs to keep going.”

Renou said the change must also consider the environment and global warming. FPInnovations is looking at two innovations that will affect log transportation, estimated at 40 per cent of the log extraction cost; one of which is studying hybrids. In fall 2021, FPInnovations announced it was looking at a hybrid tractor trailer. The $2.5 million project replaces one of the conventional axles on forestry trailers with a drive axle that is powered by an electric motor.

Renou said the hybrid version in log hauling is favoured because of the Canadian terrain and haul distances. “There are times when you need the power of mixed fuels rather than going fully electric,” he said. Some industries such as the mining industry, where trucks travel a shorter route and can recharge when not in use, have made the switch to full electric hauling but the forest industry faces a different set of challenges.

Another area that FPInnovations has been developing since 2020 is truck platooning, where one logging truck with a driver is able to use radio frequency signals to control driverless trucks following the lead truck. Also known as autonomous trucking, the concept is still attempting to meet Transport Canada’s requirements.

“This is not so much about cost as it is about labour,” he said of this future technology, still three to four years away.
Technology will play a role across all the changes that need to happen as the forest industry evolves. “People think there is one magic bullet that will solve the problem,” he said, adding that it is not a simple solution but a major shift in forest practices, wood utilization, and value-added products.

“We all have to work together and change the culture if we want to move forward,” he said.

Source: Written by Jean Sorenson for Truck Logger BC, Winter 2023, used with permission.