Editor's note
This week’s issue is less about new sensing and more about synthesis.
As pointed out in Boreal Tech Brief multiple times, forestry does not primarily lack data. Across research, operations, and planning, the challenge has long been fragmentation. What is changing now is the ability to connect existing datasets — across sources, scales, and use cases — and turn them into something actionable.
From national research infrastructures to site-specific contractor pricing and formula-backed AI assistants, the direction is consistent. Progress increasingly comes from integration rather than invention.
Axel
WHAT GOT ME THINKING
Sweden Launches a National Arena for Data-Driven Forestry
A new multi-million kronor initiative, WIFORCE, is creating a "National Arena" for forest research in Sweden. Funded by the Wallenberg Foundation, the project gathers fragmented data sources into a single, supercomputer-powered hub at SLU and Umeå University. It’s designed to be the engine for the next generation of AI-driven forestry, giving researchers and companies a unified platform to solve complex climate and production puzzles.
Axel’s notes: What stood out here is not the creation of yet another dataset, but the ambition to connect what already exists. Laser scans, genetic records, growth data, climate inputs—these have long lived in parallel silos.
The real potential lies in making them interoperable. When existing datasets can be queried, combined, and modelled together, entirely new questions become tractable. Productivity, resilience, and climate trade-offs stop being separate research tracks and become parts of the same system.
Metsä Group uses AI to Retire Fixed Pricing for Young Stand Management
Metsä Group has launched an AI-driven pricing tool that replaces the old fixed-price lists for young stand management. Instead of a one-size-fits-all matrix, the app uses satellite data and historical models to calculate a site-specific price based on actual working conditions. It’s a move toward fairer, more transparent compensation for contractors, ensuring the pay matches the effort required for every hectare.
SkogsAI 3.0: A Forestry Assistant That Uses Real Formulas
SkogsAI is a Swedish AI assistant designed to be an expert in forestry. The new 3.0 version addresses a common AI problem: unreliable answers. Instead of letting the language model estimate things like current growth, the system now uses custom tools that run actual forestry research formulas. This means for example that when you ask about stand development, you get calculations based on established science rather than the AI's best guess.
Full disclosure: Besides editing this newsletter, I'm also the founder of SkogsAI.
ESA’s Biomass Satellite Finally Opens Its Data to the World
After a careful calibration phase, ESA’s Biomass satellite is now fully operational and offering free, open access to its data. Unlike optical satellites, it uses a P-band radar that can see through the canopy to measure the woody biomass of trunks and branches directly. It’s a massive leap forward for estimating global carbon stocks and understanding exactly how forests are changing—or growing—over time.
"Internet of Trees" Is Live and Biodegradable
Forest protection is getting a hardware upgrade with biodegradable sensors that form an "Internet of Trees." Thousands of these tiny devices are being deployed in the Amazon and Indonesia to detect threats like axe vibrations or smoke, alerting authorities via satellite in real-time. Crucially, because they degrade naturally, they don't become e-waste in the ecosystem they’re meant to protect. a smart solution for monitoring remote wilderness