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2009 Programme
What is ForestTECH 2009?
It’s an innovative technology transfer programme that's being designed with a wide cross section of forestry owners, managers and technical staff. The content has been developed from two very successful events that have recently been run for forestry companies in New Zealand and Australia, ForestTECH 2007 and ForestTECH 2008.
Background
An independent platform for technology transfer, outlining new innovations and communicating research results that can readily be adopted by forestry companies has until recently been largely absent from Australasia. The ForestTECH series was designed to fill this need.
The Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) is recognised as providing one of the most effective vehicles for technology transfer in the Australasian forest products industry. The skills developed from over 12 years of transferring new technology to wood products companies has been extended into forest management for Australasian forestry companies. In conjunction with a wide cross section of technical staff involved in forest establishment, silviculture, inventory and stand assessment, Forest-TECH 2007 and ForestTECH 2008 were designed and ran for forestry managers, forest owners and technical staff.
The response to both events was overwhelming. Over 300 technical staff attended. The feedback and message from the industry from the last two events was very clear. There is an urgent need for a regular independent overview of new tools and technologies that will assist forest managers to make key operational, planning and strategic decisions. A more focussed and regular technology programme starting with ForestTECH 2009 is being run by FIEA – in both New Zealand and Australia – to meet this demand.
What will the programme cover?
ForestTECH 2009 will comprise of an integrated series of practical workshops, managed exhibitions, demonstrations and field visits. Major themes being developed for ForestTECH 2009 include:
• Forest Sampling & Inventory (mobile GPS/DGPS/GIS, integrating GPS/GIS, pre-harvest inventories...)
• Data Collection Tools (field data capture, profiling of standing trees, single tree plotting, tree counting, the hardware being used in the forest – dataloggers/toughbooks/tablets, data connectivity, combining and using the data sources...)
• Forest Mapping (remote sensing – imagery, photogrammetry/LIDAR, hyperspectral and web mapping, digital terrain models, expanding forest mapping to include integrating GIS and non-spatial forest information systems...)
• Forest Management Information Systems and Estate Planning
• Assessment of Wood & Stand quality
Who will be attending?
Forestry managers, forest owners, technical foresters, forestry consultants, plantation forestry researchers and key suppliers to Australian and New Zealand forestry companies.
Previous Delegates Comments
"Excellent conference and at the right time. Great networking opportunities. One of the best technical events I have been to”, Geoff Cameron, Forestry Consultant, Geoff Cameron & Associates, New Zealand
“Good idea, precision forestry and technical topics are not covered well in other conferences and this conference really fills the gap.” Roger Stephens, Resource Information Manager, Timbercorp Ltd, Australia
“This is the first of its kind worldwide that I know of”, Doug Jones, Director Client Services, Remsoft Inc, Canada
“Great location and a long overdue conference, I would certainly like some of my Australian colleagues to hear these talks.” Maree Candish, Manager Asian Investments, New Forests, Australia
“Thank you, I wish these events had been available 15-20 yrs ago“, Paul Cox, Managing Director, ForestTech Services, New Zealand
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