Smart Forests and Cutting-Edge Technologies: A Landmark Conference with Alexandre Morin-Bernard!
By : Besma Bouslimi
With great enthusiasm, the lecture series « Tire-toi une bûche, v’là de la science! » came back to life this winter, warmly hosted by Professor Evelyne Thiffault. This friendly series offered a chance to discover exciting research projects conducted at the Montmorency Forest, in an environment that was both rigorous and inspiring.
The April 24 conference featured Professor Alexandre Morin-Bernard from the Department of Wood and Forest Sciences at Université Laval and a CRMR member, who delivered a presentation that was both accessible and fascinating, focused on the evolution of forest inventory methods. This talk was not only a scientific highlight, but also brought the Winter 2025 edition to a brilliant close.
Entitled « The New Era of Forest Inventories at the Montmorency Forest », the conference shed light on recent technological advances that are transforming our understanding of forest ecosystems. Thanks to the growing accessibility of technologies like LiDAR sensors and drones, researchers now have powerful tools to characterize forests with unprecedented precision.
Through concrete examples drawn from ongoing projects at the Montmorency Forest, Alexandre illustrated how these next-generation approaches make it possible to automate ecoforestry mapping and measure precise attributes at the plot and tree level. His presentation also highlighted how these innovations contribute to improving our understanding of forest ecosystems and supporting more sustainable forest management.
Participants praised the clarity of the explanations, the rigor of the data presented, and the speaker’s evident passion for forestry innovation. His infectious enthusiasm helped to simplify complex concepts while sparking interest in the challenges and opportunities of the sector.
A huge thank-you to Alexandre for this fascinating dive into the smart forests of tomorrow, and to everyone who helped revive this cherished scientific tradition.
For those who missed it, the conference is available for replay on the FFGG YouTube channel!