Page 16 - Tree Line - North Carolina Forestry Association - First Quarter 2021

Foresters and software engineers
perform field testing together.
Practical Tools for Forestry in the
BY MIKE BERZINIS, NCRF, CSM
There’s a certain satisfaction in getting a job done the right way with the right tools. With the help of a portable sawmill, I recently sawed up a large red oak tree when it fell from my neighbor’s yard during Hurricane Michael. From the drying, to the milling of the large boards, it became frustratingly clear that I didn’t have the right tools to work efficiently and produce the quality I
desired. Without the right types of tools, l ended up wasting a lot of wood and creating mistakes along the way.
It can be significantly harder to figure out if one is working with the right tools when it comes to the software and technology (or “digital”) side of the forestry business. This article is meant to share the latest in industry and technology shifts and considerations as we head into a more digital future with increased information demands and new expectations from stakeholders and employees.
from medicine to transportation.
As demand for useful information
continues to grow, whether for forest certification, general record keeping, or client reporting, practical technologies have never been more crucial to business success. Lacking a strategy for technology can impact the bottom line, expose one to ransomware or hacks, and add to administrative overhead. The year 2020, where many people found themselves having to work from home for the first time, accelerated the fact that business technology and information need to function anywhere.
Today, there are many affordable, user- friendly options for making practical use of the amazing advancements happening all around us. While 15 years ago, you might have gone to the department store and bought a disk with software (while also stopping by Blockbuster), the way to get software is now quite different. The structure and investments by the forestry and wood products industry have changed substantially, influencing the options that trickle down to the rest of us.
“Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.” — Brandon Mull
The World Has Changed
The digital age can be daunting: self- driving cars, artificial intelligence, and drones are just a few relatively recent developments. While most forestry professionals would rather be in the outdoors than at a computer, the use of technology has become a fact of daily life at home and in the office. Exponential advances in computing are creating amazing benefits for humanity and commerce, with impacts across sectors
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ncforestry.org / FIRST QUARTER 2021