Enhanced Forest Resource Inventory

Forest Resource Inventory (FRI)

As part of the government’s response to the recommendations from the Minister's Council on Forest Sector Competitiveness, the enhancement of the Forest Resources Inventory program was announced on September 29, 2005. As part of the enhancement the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) assumed full responsibility for production of the Forest Resources Inventory.

Coming out of that decision the administration of funding for the program was assigned to the Forestry Futures Trust Committee. In addition, a Provincial Forest Inventory Advisory Committee (PFIAC) was established to advise the MNRF on how to ensure the FRI program would remain current and effective. The PFIAC was given the option of utilizing technical committees to provide input on the design of the program. The MNRF retains the overall stewardship role, policy responsibility, scheduling and priority setting, standard setting, quality control and information management requirements for the program.

FRI Funding Clarification

Funding for the FRI program does not come from the traditional FFT stumpage charge, but has its own funding stream. The FRI program has a separate $10 million/yr commitment from the government to ensure the success of this program. Funding the program does not entail an additional contribution to the FFT by the forest industry, nor does it affect the core FFT silviculture program.

Knowledge Transfer and Tool Development (KTTD)

Round 5- anticipated Requests for proposals Fall 2026

Round 4 -

Approved project summaries can be found here

July 25 2023

Forestry Futures Trust Committee, in cooperation with the MNRF FRI section, hosted the KTTD R4 - Research needs to support FRI continuous inventory presentation. The following links provide access to the video, slide deck and follow-up Q&A

Round 3 -

Approved project summaries can be found here

The table below links project deliverables

Project Number	Author	Title	KTTD Deliverables
KTTD 1A-2021	Craig Robinson	Enhancements for eFRI Next Generation Handhelds - for VSN Plots	Full code and documentation, added to the public git repository on Github at this link: (https://github.com/csrobins/eFRI_LiDAR_Handheld)
KTTD 5A-2021	Donald Robinson	Linking FRI data to FVS-Ontario	1.Summary Document 2.Results and Next Steps 3.Hands-on Training session
KTTD 6A-2021	Alain Richard	eFRI Wetland Crosswalk and Applied Products	1. Geodatabases housing EWC habitat types and inferred information; January 2022 2. DUC - eFRI Wetland Crosswalk and Applied Products - Final Report; 3. Knowledge and Technology Transfer; March 2022
KTTD 7A-2021	Adam Anderson	Development of LiDAR Based Geospatial tools to Aid in Operational Planning in Ontario	Deliverables 1.Refined of the seasonal operability tool 2.The Road Location Optimization Tool
KTTD 8A-2021	Dr. Ben DeVries (UG) and Dr. Chris MacQuarrie (NRCan)	Developing an inventory of eastern hemlock for Ontario	1. Ontario Eastern Hemlock inventory: Single-band raster dataset with an embedded colour table. Class codes are defined as follows: 0: non-hemlock forest stand 1: hemlock-dominant forest stand 2: hemlock/mixwood co-dominant forest stand 3: hemlock/evergreen co-dominant forest stand 255: non-forest and no-data Available for download at: https://github.com/bendv/FFT-KTTD-Hemlock 2. Google Earth Engine script for loading and pre-processing Sentinel-2 image stacks This script computes the Infra-Red Enhanced Chlorophyll Index (IRECI) for all available Sentinel-2 images acquired within a given tile ID. It then generates 36 10-day median IRECI composites, aggregating all images over a four-year period. Available for download at https://github.com/bendv/FFT-KTTD-Hemlock 3. 10-day IRECI composite test stack and accompanying wooded area mask IRECI test stack: https://uoguelphca-my.sharepoint.com/:i:/g/personal/bdv_uoguelph_ca/EcQfBPSHDJpDmUlrQ87bEUEBIo90hxYe8r56-Eb-edNlhQ?e=dIDOnv Wooded area mask: https://uoguelphca-my.sharepoint.com/:i:/g/personal/bdv_uoguelph_ca/EeMsxEBuPwdGuG7qKDJnwy4B0FgxdXusbFBEq6VoZaqVzQ?e=vt4tgl Pre-trained Hemlock Classifier: https://uoguelphca-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/bdv_uoguelph_ca/EVTwQ5OGWJ9JsDi0sMp9z-8Bb2Fr-DqcZPWixkotAMb46w?e=66DxrV 4. Report
KTTD 10A-2021	John Pineau	Private Land Inventory and Economics Study	1.The Ontario Woodlander—An Ontario Woodlot Association Quarterly. Issue 103, June 2021 2.The Ontario Woodlander—An Ontario Woodlot Association Quarterly. Issue 104, September 2021 3.December 15th, 2021 capstone presentation: 2021 MFC Capstone Presentations: December 14th & 15th \| Forestry (utoronto.ca) 4. OWA Conference Presentation (Murray Woods and Ben Gwilliam) April 21st, 2021; starts at 1:30 of the video: https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/iTt6cm9YNrjRPvPUk9tjwcAVw9Ccy5JdOWcslxd5cHaA2n7JlFky-FsaBFmXreI4.YNe_ecQkJbHIZZLm?startTime=1619046264000 Social Media Posts : https://www.facebook.com/OntarioWoodlotAssociation/photos/a.267688763293609/4185084881553958/ https://www.facebook.com/OntarioWoodlotAssociation/photos/a.3317024455026676/4363339463728498/ https://www.facebook.com/OntarioWoodlotAssociation/photos/pcb.4365178413544603/4365169036878874/ https://www.facebook.com/OntarioWoodlotAssociation/photos/a.267688763293609/4426154520780325/
KTTD 11A-2021	Andy Welch	Assisting Ottawa Valley Forest transition to T2 FRI	Project Report

KTTD 1B-2021	Alexander Bilyk	Assessing Site Productivity from Remote Sensing and historic information	Assessing Site Productivity from Remote Sensing and historic information Assessing Site Productivity via Remote Sensing—Age-Independent Site Index Estimation in Even-Aged Forests Final Report Webinar of results
KTTD 2B-2021	Dr. Nicholas Coops	Automated Road and Attribute Extraction from SPL Data	Code released for download Deliverable Workshops developed and run for Ministry and Forest Company staff on the toolkit
KTTD 3B-2021	Dr. Nicholas Coops	Integration of Photo Interpreted and LIDAR Attributes Into a Polygonal Forest Inventory Framework Attributes	Open source code release Deliverable Workshop for industry and Government participants. Peer reviewed papers on approach.
KTTD 10B-2021	Dr. Margaret Penner	Automated characterization of forest vertical structure using single photon LIDAR	Species Prediction Using Single Photon LiDAR Results from the Algonquin Park Forest Automated characterization of forest canopy vertical layering for predicting forest inventory attributes by layer using airborne LiDAR data
KTTD 14B-2021	Dr. Mahadev Sharma	Developing G&Y models for white pine and white spruce plantations	Taper equations for Sw and Pw plantations Volume equations for Sw and Pw plantations Journal paper on diameter growth of white spruce and white pine plantations Implementation and transfer of final model products in MIST
KTTD 16B-2021	Craig Robinson	FIM Compliant LiDAR Inventory of Selected Areas in the Romeo Malette Forest	Webinar July 13, 2023 entitled LiDAR Derived Individual Tree, Hexagon, and Polygonal Forest Inventories - Romeo Malette Forest Link and login information to where the individual tree (ITI), hexagon (EFI), and polygon (FRI) inventories and the LiDAR ArcGIS Add-In ftp.forsite.ca user: FFT-LiDAR pass: GKTB2valuers= KTTD 16B-2021 Final Report
KTTD 19B-2021	Dr. Kara Webster	Advancing Digital Soil Mapping tools in support of forest resource inventory, planning and decision making	Yanni, S., Webster, K.L. 2024. Forest Soil Datasets in Ontario – Fact Sheets. CFS Information Report. 75pp Paré, D., Bognounou, F., Emilson, E.J., Laganière, J., Leach, J., Mansuy, N., Martineau, C., Norris, C., Venier, L. and Webster, K., 2024. Connecting forest soil properties with ecosystem services: Toward a better use of digital soil maps—A review. Soil Science Society of America Journal. https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/saj2.20705 Fleming, R.L., Uhlig, P.W., Morris, D.M., Kwiaton, M., Baldwin, K.A., Hazlett, P.W., Webster, K.L. and Chapman, K.A., 2023. A quantitative approach to defining soil nutrient regimes within ecosystem classifications for Northwestern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 53, 620-641.https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2022-0296. CFS Group of Analytical Labs (edited by Paré, D., Webster, K., and Norris, C. 2023. Collecting, analysing and storing forest soil data and samples in the age of big data. A guide for researchers and field practitioners. Laurentian Forestry Centre publication. ISBN: Fo4-211/2023E-PDF 978-0-660-47983-5. https://scf.rncan.gc.ca/publications?id=40929. Blackford, C., Heung, B. and Webster, K.L., 2022. Incorporating spatial uncertainty maps into soil sampling improves digital soil mapping classification accuracy in Ontario, Canada. Geoderma Regional, p.e00495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2022.e00495 Digital soil mapping Newsletter Blackford, C., Heung, B., Baldwin, K., Fleming, R., Hazlett, P., Morris, D.M., Uhlig, P., Webster, K.L. 2021. Digital Soil Mapping workflow for forest resource applications: A case study in the Hearst Forest, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 51: 59–77. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2020-0066 Fact Sheet- Forest Ecosystem Classification/Ecosystem Land Classification Fact Sheet – Forest Soil Datasets Summary KTTD 19B-2021 Final Report
KTTD 20B-2021	Murray Woods	Accelerating the implementation of enhanced forest inventories in Ontario	Acceleration _Algonquin Park Report_July16_22 Algonquin Park LiDAR Model Calibration Results_July19_2022 DogR Matawin LiDAR Model Calibration Results_Feb6_22 Romeo Malette Project Results Nov5_2021 Acceleration _DogRiverMatawin Report_Mar8_22 Acceleration _RomeoMalette Report_March 15 FrenchSevern T2 Final Report_Dec1 -> Plot compilation code and documentation posted to GITHUB development and calibration plot

Round 2

Approved project summaries can be found here and deliverabled linked in the table below, when available.

Project name

Applicant

Deliverables

Using the eFRI to predict hardwood selection stands in the Bancroft Minden Forest

Bancroft-Minden Forest Company

Project cancelled by applicant

Seasonal Operability Predictor Tool for Forest Operations

Resource Innovations Inc.

Seasonal Operability Predictor Toolbox (.tbx ArcGIS file) Contact office for file

Seasonal Operability Predictor Tool for Forest Operations - Technical Operations Guide (.pdf)

Overlay Raster (.lyr ArcGIS file) Contact office for file

WebEx Presentation:

Forestry Futures Trust Committee KTTD Round 2 Technology Transfer Presentations-20210211 1731-3

Password: bVMP2Q8P Presentation

Modeling post-fire residual shoreline forest pattern

MNRF

Final Report: Newax, Md.S., Mackereth, R.W., Mallik, A.U., McCormick, D., 2020. How much

boreal lake shoreline is burned by wildfire? Implications for emulating natural disturbance in

riparian forest management. For. Ecol. Manag. 473, 1-9.

WebEx Presentation

Forestry Futures Trust Committee KTTD Round 2 Technology Transfer Presentations-20210311 1725-3

Password tEpARPg8 Presentation

FRIHub: A Discovery Portal for FRI Data and Products

Lim Geomatics Inc

WebEx Presentation for both projects

Forestry Futures Trust Committee KTTD Round 2 Technology Transfer Presentations-20210325 1601-2

Password wYwqBWX7

ITESTA - Individual Tree Extraction and Species Typing Analysis

Lim Geomatics Inc

one link for 2 projects

Next Generation eFRI Ground Data Collection App

ArborData Consulting Ltd

Final Report - Next Generation eFRI Mobile Application (.pdf)

[report contains links to the eLiDAR App (located on Github) and a downloadable Android version of eLiDAR]

WebEx Presentation:

Forestry Futures Trust Committee KTTD Round 2 Technology Transfer Presentations-20210211 1701-2

password :6Xa94cPt Presentation

Development of an enhanced operational forest inventory based on multispectral imagery and 3D point data.

KBM Resources Group

Withdrawn

eFRI Accuracy Assessment and Change Update Approaches

University of British Columbia

Final Report - Development of a Forest Inventory using 2018 Single Photon LiDAR and Assessing Decadal Forest Change (.pdf)

WebEx Presentation:

Forestry Futures Trust Committee KTTD Round 2 Technology Transfer Presentations-20210318 1600-2

Password xFdqdWi4 Presentation

Scoping an enhanced G&Y program to complement the eFRI

Forest Analysis Ltd.

Final Report - The Ontario Growth and Yield Program Status and Needs - Report to the Forestry Futures Trust Committee (.pdf)

Ontario Growth & Yield Status and Needs Final Report (.pptx)

An analysis of machine learning methodologies for determining stand level attributes.

KBM Resources Group

Report pending

Enhancing Forest Inventory with Terrestrial LiDAR

Overstory Consultants

Final Report - Enhancing Forest Inventory with TLiDAR (.pdf)

Science Insights Seminar Feb. 6, 2019 - Enhancing Growth and Yield Data Collection and Forest Resource Inventory with Terrestrial LiDAR https://mnrfscience.adobeconnect.com/psmsc7kvqsx0/

WebEx Presentation:

Forestry Futures Trust Committee KTTD Round 2 Technology Transfer Presentations-20210311 1701-2

Password mDnsShb2 Presentation

Exploring the innovation potential of single photon LiDAR for Ontario’s eFRI

Canadian Institute of Forestry

Final Report - Exploring the Innovation Potential of Single Phton LiDAR for Ontario's eFRI (.pdf)

Appendix C Part 1 2018 AFRIT SPL Inventory Field Protocols (.pdf)

Appendix C Part 2 Small Tree Sampling Protocol (.pdf)

Appendix C Part 3 Validation Data Collection Protocols for Petawawa Research Forest (.pdf)

Appendix D Penner Petawawa Research Forest SPL Final Report (.pdf)

PRF_CNL_SPL_EFI_layers

PRFCNL_dtm_2018.tar.gz

CIF/IFC Electronic Lecture Feb. 6, 2019 - Remote Sensing Tools and Approaches to eFRI - an Ontario &

National Snapshot pdf and http://cif-ifc.adobeconnect.com/ptu6q4capftm/

Article in Canadian Institute of Forestry membership magazine: CIF. Strong research collaborations are key in exploring the innovation potential of new technologies

for the forest sector: New data for mapping the terrain surface. The Leader, Spring 2020, pp. 20-23.

English copy: http://www.cif-ifc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20200315-CIF-The-Leader-8.5x11-EN-spreads-DIGITAL.pdf

French Copy: http://www.cif-ifc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20200315-CIF-The-Leader-8.5x11-FR-spreads-DIGITAL.pdf

Evaluating the capacity of single photon lidar for terrain characterization
under a range of forest conditions.pdf

The Forestry Chronicle • 23 February 2021 • Assessing single photon LiDAR for operational implementation of an enhanced forest inventory in diverse mixedwood forests- https://pubs.cif-ifc.org/doi/10.5558/tfc2021-009

WebEx presentation:

Forestry Futures Trust Committee KTTD Round 2 Technology Transfer Presentations-20210218 1700-2

password Jxz7gTbF Presentation