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
BREAKING Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.