Inventory and Monitoring Forest Invasive Species with Airborne Remote

Sensing:Honeysuckle in the Taconics

Katie Joseph and Robert Turner, RJ Turner Company

Vermont Monitoring Cooperative 10.30.06

The Question

• Can invasive plants be detected over a large scale in forested systems using remote sensing technology?

The Opportunity

• Vermont TNC was investigating 3,700 acres in core of Equinox Highlands matrix block

• Matrix block: large scale, relatively unfragmented landscape, bounded by fragmenting features such as roads

The Opportunity• Timber cruise plus

information on presence of invasives

• Opportunity to apply new technology to the problem – AIMS-1 technology: high

resolution multispectral airborne imagery with stereo capability

• Equinox Highlands• 63,000 A landscape• Northern Taconics• Mountainous (3,800 ft)

• 90% forested• Marbles; carbonates

The Site

Mt. Equinox

The Threat• Bush honeysuckles• Japanese barberry• Buckthorn

The Threat• Timber cruise

data gives us an indication of where invasion is occurring and what species pose the greatest threat

Insert Map of cruise points with colors indicating the presence of honeysuckle and barberry

Our Goal: Differentiate invasives from surrounding, native vegetation• The 3 invasives leaf out early, stay

late• Heights are definable, shrub strata• High probability of invasion near

disturbed and open areas

The Tools• Low elevation photography

– 75 cm pixel size: full coverage– 15 cm pixel size: sample coverage– Multispectral (red, blue, green, and

near infrared)– Stereo capability for both 15 cm and

75 cm (3D viewing)

The Process: Data• April 26, 2006:

– Flight with the AIMS-1 sensor (Mt Holyoke Geoprocessing Lab)

– Initial Ground Control Collection with GPS

• Fall 2006:– Additional Ground

Control Collection with GPS

Insert Map of photo centers: 15 cm and 75 cm (Flight Paths)

The Process: Image Preparation• Image pre-processing

– Create stereo blocks for stereo interpretation: 3D viewing

– Create orthophotos (correct for variation in terrain) and orthomosaic (stitch all of the orthophotos together to make a single image)

75 cm resolution15 cm resolution

• Stereo interpretation (3D viewing) used to differentiate vegetation types and strata – Serves as training

in classification

The Process: Analysis

The Process: Analysis• Supervised Classification

• Accuracy Assessment: How did we do?

Results so far

• More ground-truthing needed this fall• Preliminary results—honeysuckle detectable• Spatial accuracy better than timber cruise, we can get

precise location for single shrubs• Remaining question whether honeysuckle signature

“clean enough”

Feasibility

• Cost• Remote sensing expertise & software

needed• Imagery can be custom flown, easily

arranged

Additional Remote Sensing Opportunities with AIMS-1 products• Forest stand typing• Forest inventory• Coarse woody debris inventory• Future flights: Invasive plant monitoring

over time

Additional Remote Sensing Opportunities with AIMS-1 products

• Current projects associated with the AIMS-1 Sensor include– Hemlock Wooly Adelgid

monitoring– Detailed Crown Cover Mapping– Spatial Database Creation of

Drainage Features– Habitat Feature Extraction Along

the Lamprey River, Energy Modeling of Hydrologic Features

Project Credits• Rose Paul

– The Nature Conservancy – rpaul@TNC.ORG>

• Thomas Millette– Mt. Holyoke College Geoprocessing Lab– tmillett@mtholyoke.edu

• Jeremy Turner 603-526-8686 – Meadowsend Timberlands Ltd.