"Charting the Future of Resource Information Management"
Services
In California, the timber industry is faced with many unique challenges. The interaction of both state and federal regulatory agencies with private interests creates an environment which, at times, can make forest management seem impossible. Alpine has grown up in this world and operates within its guidelines very effectively. Our services are designed to answer and even pre-empt any regulatory concerns or questions. It is this level of preparation which provides regulatory confidence and trust in our products and services. At Alpine, we believe that intensive forest management begins with an affordable informational strategy.
Alpine offers a full range of forest management services specifically designed to meet your management goals. We combine our site-specific approach to forest planning with your individual expertise to develop a strategy for management that maximizes results and profit, while minimizing cost.
Alpine is committed to an aggressive, focused forest management strategy. Every decision on all acres must contribute to the accomplishment of landscape goals. Each forester’s site-specific knowledge is combined with Alpines' vision to create a detailed long-term landscape level-management plan. Each of Alpine's strategic plans provides for detailed operational direction for decades to come on all acres. Our plans leave little to chance. They may be readily modified or adapted to the evolving management environment.
Information Systems
Here at Alpine we specialize in providing turnkey solutions for managing our client’s information. To accomplish this, we employ a wide array of professional expertise in forestry, logistics, and software development.
Whether we are developing new data collection protocols for our field crews, creating a new piece of software, or just finding the most cost-effective way to access a remote piece of ground, the men and women of Alpine are fully engaged in solving our clients problems with an innovative yet straightforward approach.
During our day to day operations Alpine staff is perpetually collecting and updating our Resource Information System (RIS), and our purpose-built GIS software (Atlas III) to keep up with the changing landscapes and legal requirements that define the timber industry. Over the last 30 years we have encountered many challenges and have learned a lot by overcoming them.
From one problem to the next, we take great pride in what we do, and our work will attest to that. The Alpine of today has insight that only industry veterans can match. Couple that insight with an agile, no non-sense development style, and it becomes easy to see that Alpine Land Information Services is a leader in its field.
Software Development
The key to our development strategy is truly understanding and anticipating our client’s entire informational needs. We primarily build custom integrated multi-resource database applications to meet today's challenging forest management needs. We also develop iOS applications that support a wide array of field data collection protocols.
Below are some examples of our present informational strategies and integrated forest management systems:
Graphical Planning Interface (GPI)
Modeling long-term sustained yield on a landscape level raises several concerns. Usually, a model will compromise on-the-ground reliability for stand-level accuracy. This essentially breaks the tie between modeled inventory and the actual landscape. GPI© along with support from other Alpine applications, allows for modeling at the unit level, keeping all the information available from inventory plots, while also providing broader landscape-level clarity. GPI© allows input for both site specific and landscape level information types. Using both in one analysis has proved to be the crucial element needed to satisfy the needs of regulators, long-range planners and foresters alike.
Resource Information System (RIS)
RIS is a software system designed to be utilized by foresters and administrators. Its interface combines a robust database environment with an integrated map system. The primary objective is to equip land managers with an intuitive way to answer any spatially explicit or landscape level question they may have. In unison, always having access to detail forest inventory to make better informed management decisions.
Atlas III
We are currently in development of the latest installment of our custom GIS software Atlas III. Atlas III focuses on the basic needs of foresters when developing Timber Harvest Plans that must meet the exacting standards of the California Department of Forestry. New and improved functionality includes: User defined cross layer commonality settings, easy to use vertex snapping, robust attribute editing, dockable windows, customizable keyboard shortcuts, improved map printing, and seamless integration with Geospatial PDF’s. These features are nicely wrapped in an easy to use User Interface with drastically improved load times allowing easy and quick manipulation of large datasets.
Field Data Collection
Our contribution regarding actual field work and data collection has varied greatly over the last 25 years. Stated quite simply, we do the job that our clients want done. We commonly measure this contribution by the number of pickups in our company fleet at any given time. Whether it is over 35 pickups with trained people in the field or as low as 4, our goal is always to meet the need.
At Alpine we take forestry and data management full circle beginning with our custom data collection protocols employed by our highly skilled and efficient field crews. At any point our field crews can be found throughout Northern California collecting a multitude of field data.
The data collection protocols utilize our custom-built iOS applications. These applications maximize the efficiency of the field staffs time, employ in-field data checks and automatic data exports to a cloud network. Our data technicians receive daily updates from multiple crews around the state, allowing our data uptake to be the quickest it has ever been.
In addition to the iOS applications our field staff also utilize the most modern and accurate forest mensuration devices. Tree measurements are taken using the Haglöf Vertex Laser Geo Hypsometer and or the Criterion™ RD 1000 Electronic BAF-scope/Dendrometer. These tools, used in conjunction with our iOS apps have created a very accurate, repeatable and reliable field data collection systems.
Visual Forester - Stand Designer
Today, pressing issues in wildlife, fire, sustainability, climate, and carbon have once again brought forest planning to mainstream public discussion–forestry is in the national news cycle year-round. Modernized tools to visualize and discuss complex forestry topics are long overdue. Now more than ever, Alpine and the Visual Forester team are ready to fill these needs and provide industry leading solutions for today’s land management challenges.