The Future of Forestry: Domtar’s Use of Drones

Domtar’s Ashdown, Arkansas mill has used drone technology since 2016 to save time, improve efficiencies and help keep its foresters safe.

Domtar’s Ashdown, Arkansas mill uses drone technology to complete critical forestry tasks:

• Faster
• Safer
• More efficiently

Here are three ways drones are changing forestry as we know it:

1) Easily spotting diseases and infestations. Here, significant beetle damage was found, as indicated by the dead and dying trees below.

2) Measuring wood chip piles. Massive chip piles use to make pulp and paper products need to be inventoried. Drones can fly overhead, doing calculations that used to take a half an day to complete in about 30 minutes.

3) Monitoring harvests and replanting. Drones save time inspecting tracts of land that have been harvested or recently replanted. This ensures responsible harvesting while monitoring the next generation of trees.

To view more videos of Domtar's latest sustainabilty efforts visit our YouTube page.