Stand read · north Idaho
A stand we flew, resolved tree by tree.
A stand read is a planning-grade tree list from a reconstruction: heights, optional inferred volume, trees that already look dead, and a short walk list. Little Boulder Creek is the reference — flown, rebuilt, and open in the browser. It is not a cruise.
Hours for a picture and a walk list. Not sale volume. Not a diagnosis.
Open collaboration
The stand is the progress. Aerial lidar is the ask.
The stand read is hours for a picture and a walk list, not a cruise of record. We already reconstruct a north Idaho stand from drone video and open it in the browser. A university partnership that brings real aerial lidar — and the plots that would check it — is how the inferred numbers get a field test. If that is your lab, we should talk.
When this comes up
The cruise is not the problem. The grid is.
Foresters already know how to measure a plot. What they cannot afford is walking every one of them at the same intensity. These are the moments a whole-stand picture earns its keep.
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Before a cruise
You have a property to inventory and a limited number of plots. You need to know where the stand actually changes before you lay the grid.
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After a storm or fire
Something hit the canopy and you need a first-pass map of where mortality and blowdown concentrated — before you send a crew into every unit.
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A health inspection list
Visible decline is showing up in pieces of the property. You need those areas ranked for inspection, not a diagnosis from the air.
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A plan on ground you rarely walk
A management plan is due on a parcel nobody has cruised in years, and you need a picture of the whole thing before you decide where the professional days go.
Look at the actual output
A stand, resolved tree by tree.
This is a preview from our own reference site — not a validated cruise. 45 acres flown as six overlapping orbits, 1,562 frames reconstructed into a point cloud, then cut into 1,789 individual trees. You can open it and fly through it in your browser.
Little Boulder Creek, north Idaho — flown, reconstructed, and segmented in an afternoon. Every tree carries a position, a height, and a crown boundary. A pilot on your ground produces stand layers and a plot-priority map from this kind of survey, then a forester still measures the plots that matter.
- 45.1 ac
- surveyed, at about 40 trees per acre
- 11.2M
- points in the cloud your browser streams
- 1,789
- trees inside the flight hull, segmented individually
- 0.71 m
- median georeferencing error, no ground control
Little Boulder Creek, Idaho · 12 July 2026
What a stand read produces
Two layers. One job: send the crew to the right ground.
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Planning-grade tree list
Segmented trees across the covered area: position, height, crown extent. Optional board feet inferred from height — unvalidated, generic conifer, not a cruise. Use it to see where the stand changes before you spend plot days.
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Visible-dead flags
RGB-only late-stage dead: brown, gray, defoliated. Ranked for a walk, not scored as vigor. Not early stress, not insect green-attack, not a diagnosis. Lidar-only jobs have no color and get no flags.
Decision support, not a replacement. NatureNet complements conventional timber cruising and professional forestry judgment. It does not replace legally or professionally required cruises, appraisals, or tree-risk assessments. We do not claim verified carbon or biomass measurements without a formal methodology.
How a stand read works
Four steps from video to a walk list.
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01
Bring the video
Aerial video of the stand — circling orbits, not a nadir TIFF. Capture can be yours, or coordinated separately.
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02
Delineate and screen
Stand boundaries, the tree list, optional inferred volume, and visible-dead flags if the capture has RGB — the variables named in the SOW.
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03
Rank the plots
A walk list: tall, variable, or flagged-dead places a person should stand. The uniform grid becomes a short list.
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04
Review and deliver
A review session with the forester who will walk it. GIS and PDF outputs, plus DataHub access for the engagement term.
What is in scope, in writing
The same two lists on every statement of work.
Nobody discovers the boundary after the invoice. Where you need volumes of record, hire a cruise — this read says where to walk first. If you already have plots, we will write estimated-versus-field in the close-out. We do not publish a headline accuracy number.
Included
- Stand delineation across the covered area
- Tree list: position, height, crown extent — named in the SOW
- Optional inferred DBH / board feet, labeled unvalidated
- Visible-dead flags on RGB captures, ranked for inspection
- A walk list, a review session, GIS and PDF, DataHub for the term
Not included
- A timber cruise, appraisal, or inventory of record
- Certified or defensible board feet
- Tree-risk assessment, early stress, or a health diagnosis
- Carbon or biomass quantification
- Under-canopy stems — the drone sees the canopy surface
Common questions
The things foresters actually ask first.
- Does this replace a timber cruise?
- No. It complements one. The output is decision support: stand layers and a ranked list of plots worth walking. Legally or professionally required cruises, appraisals, and inventories of record stay with the forester. Where you need defensible volumes, we tell the cruise where to go.
- How accurate are the estimates?
- Heights come off the reconstruction (GPS UTM minus a DTM). DBH and board feet are inferred from height with generic conifer factors — unvalidated, and labeled that way. We do not publish a headline accuracy number. If you already have plots, we will write estimated-versus-field in the close-out.
- Can it see under the canopy?
- A drone sees the canopy surface. Heights, crown geometry, and visible late-stage dead (brown / gray / defoliated) are in scope. Early stress, hidden defect, and anything the canopy occludes are not — those stay on the plots the map sends you to.
- What imagery do you need?
- Aerial video — orbits or obliques, GPS on the frames if you have it. A nadir TIFF is not enough for the 3-D stand. If you have not flown yet, capture can be coordinated separately.
- What do I actually get at the end?
- A tree list (position, height, crown), optional inferred volume labeled unvalidated, visible-dead flags on RGB jobs, a walk list, a review session, and GIS plus PDF — with DataHub access for the term. The 3-D stand is a deliverable when we have orbit video; a nadir ortho may be 2-D layers only. That is named in the SOW.
- Do you report carbon or biomass?
- Not without a formal methodology, and not as part of a standard pilot. We will not put a carbon number on a page or in a deliverable we cannot defend.