Aerospace company working to protect tree canopy using drone technology
Drones and trees may not seem like the perfect combination, but one company is hoping to use the flying remote-controlled aircraft to protect tree's health.
Volatus Aerospace is working on using drones to help identify Dutch elm disease in trees.
"The objective of this project…is to identify trees within the urban canopy – not just in Winnipeg but around southern Manitoba and across anywhere that elm trees are present and affected with Dutch elm disease – and we are trying to basically be able to identify the disease earlier than it is typically able to be identified," said Matthew Johnson, the vice president of education and agriculture programming with Volatus.
Johnson said Dutch elm disease was first found in the province in the 1970s and the signs of the disease are usually noticeable in the late summer, early fall.
According to Trees Winnipeg, since 2016, the city has lost 33,000 elm trees to the disease.
Johnson said when crews usually inspect for the disease, they have to drive around communities, mark trees that they suspect have the disease and then come back and take samples to determine if they are right.
He said the process is costly and time consuming.
"We're trying to do it late spring and we're basically trying to identify the disease two months before it has been traditionally been able to be identified. And if we are able to do that then we should be able to come up with plans to get ahead of the disease."
He added in Kildonan Park alone there are roughly 4,400 trees and around 700 are elm trees.
In 2021, he said 39 trees were identified to have Dutch elm disease in the park and noted it would have taken crews a few days to identify each tree and do sampling. With the drones, he said they were able to fly through the entire park in an hour and a half.
"So if we can fly it in an hour and a half and use our machine learning algorithm that we're developing to be able to identify those trees that are diseased or at least potentially to have the disease, then we cut down on that whole time that it takes to go do the ground-based assessment."
Johnson said the key to eradicating the disease it to get ahead of it and he hopes the drone project will help with that.
He added he is hopeful that municipalities across Canada and North America join forces with Volatus to help protect tree canopies from the disease in the future.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.