Coniferous forests in the North Puget Sound area are typically multilayered and dense, with overlapping crowns comprising the overstory. Canopy height models created from remote sensing data are useful tools for communicating with landowners about their forests.
Canopy height map
Parcel orthophoto with canopy height model layer
This parcel of mature Douglas-fir and Western redcedar lent itself to algorithmic segregation more readily than those comprised of younger stands due to the lower density and more open canopy structure of the older stand.
Sometimes it is impractical or impossible to gather sUAS imagery; in those cases, we can create canopy height models using LiDAR layers from the Washington State LiDAR Portal.
Canopy height map derived from publicly-available LiDAR data