Mistletoe monitoring on pine trees

On February 11, we met with foresters in pine forests attacked by mistletoe to investigate the possibility of monitoring its spread using drones.

Mistletoe has long been common on deciduous trees, but in recent years it has also begun to threaten pine forests in parts of Poland. Unfortunately, the occurrence of mistletoe on conifers is becoming increasingly problematic, threatening forest management. By monitoring the spread of mistletoe, preventive work can be better planned. More information about the mistletoe threat can be found at https://www.lasy.gov.pl/pl/informacje/aktualnosci/jemiola-atakuje-takze-sosny

We collected data from three forests, mapping over a dozen hectares of forests using a multispectral camera (RGB + 4 multispectral bands) with a DJI M3M drone

The next step will be to analyze the data and assess the usefulness of multispectral data for detecting mistletoe.