3DEO, Inc. announces role as the first member of the Digital Forest Affiliates at the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources

3DEO, Inc. is proud to be the first member of the Digital Forest Affiliates at the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources.

The Digital Forest Affiliates (DFA) program unites researchers, industry leaders, and land managers to advance digital forestry. Through collaborative innovation, data-driven insights, and cutting-edge analytics, we empower sustainable forest management and enhance ecological understanding. Our goal is to provide partners with tools, knowledge, and real-world demonstrations to quickly build, deploy, and leverage complex data for day-to-day decisions.

3DEO understands the unique power of highly detailed 3D forest models to inform efficient land management and predict wildfire behavior. “Our next-generation Geiger-mode lidar sensor systems and data processing tools enable affordable collection of highly detailed point clouds that feed AI/ML models for forest segmentation, tree classification, and assessment of individual stem properties, forest-wide” says 3DEO’s CEO and Founder, Dr. Dale Fried. “We hope to contribute to the Digital Forest Affiliates’ deep understanding of this technology, and we hope the other Affiliates can inform our product development roadmap”

Leadership and Vision
Program leaders Director Bruce Ripley and Co-Lead Professor Mark Kimsey bring decades of experience in forestry, research, education, and industry-university collaborations. Together with 3DEO and future affiliate members, they are building a dynamic partnership ecosystem where cutting-edge technology meets practical forestry applications. The Digital Forest Affiliates is open to organizations of all sizes—from startups to established enterprises—that share a commitment to advancing digital forestry through collaboration and innovation.

About 3DEO
Founded in 2014, 3DEO commercializes advanced lidar technology developed within the US DoD over nearly two decades. Leveraging those investments, 3DEO offers two airborne lidar mapping systems: Zion (optimized for medium altitude 5-12,000 ft) and Sequoia (optimized for high altitude 20-50,000 ft).

3DEO provides complete solutions adapted to customer needs, including consulting, sensor system sales and leasing, data collection services, data processing software and services, and post-processing analytics. 3DEO's patent-pending agile georeferenced scanning capability is uniquely suited for efficient collection of high-density lidar point clouds for forestry applications in rugged environments due to its configurable angular diversity and point density.