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Thriving in Alberta's Forests, How Altalis Geospatial Data Empowers the Forestry Industry

Alberta's boreal forest is a vast and valuable resource, covering over 60% of the province. The forestry industry plays a vital role in Alberta's economy, supporting jobs, communities, and sustainable resource management. Operating within this dynamic landscape presents unique challenges that demand innovative solutions. Altalis, Alberta's trusted source for geospatial data, empowers forestry companies with the critical information needed to navigate challenges, optimize operations, and contribute to a thriving and sustainable forestry sector.

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Navigating the Complexities: Key Challenges Facing the Alberta Forestry Industry

Complex Land Ownership

Alberta's forest lands are a patchwork of ownership, including public lands (provincial and federal), private lands, and Indigenous lands. This intricate ownership structure necessitates due diligence and often involves complex processes with various stakeholders to secure access for timber harvesting and forest management activities. 

Stringent Environmental Regulations

Protecting Alberta's biodiversity and ecological integrity is paramount. Forestry operations must adhere to various environmental regulations for wildlife habitat protection, watercourse management, and minimizing impacts on sensitive ecosystems. Staying informed about evolving regulations and ensuring compliance can be a demanding task.

Sustainable Forest Management

Balancing economic needs with long-term forest health requires careful planning and precise execution. Forestry companies must accurately assess forest resources, plan sustainable harvest strategies, and monitor the effectiveness of reforestation efforts to ensure the industry's long-term viability.

Operational Efficiency and Safety

Operating on a vast landscape with challenging terrain and unpredictable weather conditions can create logistical hurdles for forestry operations. Optimizing harvesting operations, ensuring worker safety, and efficiently transporting timber from remote locations require strategic planning and access to reliable spatial information.

Wildfire Risk Mitigation

Minimizing wildfire risk requires accurate information on terrain, fuel sources, and potential fire spread patterns to support effective prevention and response strategies. Compounding this challenge is the increasingly unpredictable nature of wildfire behavior due to climate change, demanding even more precise and timely data.

Altalis Geospatial Data Products: Empowering Forestry Businesses

Altalis offers a comprehensive suite of geospatial data products that address the forestry industry's challenges. Examples of these products and their application in the industry include:

Cadastral Mapping defines the mapping of survey plan information, including dispositions, blocks, right-of-ways, etc. It can apply to activities such as land acquisition, timber license management, site planning, identifying access routes, identifying potential easements or right-of-way issues.

Title defines property boundaries and ownership information, including Land Titles Office LINC numbers (Land Identification Numeric Code). This data is critical for due diligence activities such as verifying land rights, resolving ownership disputes, and supporting land acquisition negotiations. 

Disposition data shows surface activity extents with detailed attributes for leases and permits on Crown land. This data can be used to identify active forestry operations, understand land-use restrictions, avoid conflicts with other land users, and plan new forestry activities. 

LiDAR 7.5 Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a high-resolution Digital Elevation Model data product that can be used for terrain analysis, watershed modelling, road planning, optimizing harvest block layouts and assessing site accessibility.

Infrastructure Mapping provides the location of roads, pipelines, power lines, and other infrastructure. This data enables planning access routes, identifying potential conflicts with existing infrastructure, and assessing potential impacts of forestry operations on infrastructure. 

Base Features include essential infrastructure data such as hydrography and transportation networks, supporting comprehensive infrastructure planning.

This data facilitates efficient pipeline routing and maintenance operations by providing insights into terrain characteristics, water bodies, and transportation corridors, optimizing route selection, and emergency response planning. This data also enhances safety by ensuring maintenance crews can access pipeline locations safely and efficiently.

Altalis offers real-time GIS updates, which provide organizations with up-to-date Cadastral, Title, and Disposition geospatial data that integrates seamlessly with operational systems. By leveraging real-time data integration solutions, forestry companies can optimize resource allocation and enhance service delivery. 

Altalis offers more than just data products; we are committed to providing exceptional customer service and building long-term customer partnerships. Our experienced team offers dedicated support with data selection, purchasing, and integration, ensuring that forestry companies have the information, tools, and expertise they need to succeed.

Partnering with Altalis: Driving Success in the Forestry Industry

Partnering with Altalis provides forestry companies with a distinct advantage in navigating the complexities of Alberta's forest industry: 

  • Clear Land Ownership and Strategic Planning: Altalis data provides accurate land ownership identification, ensuring compliance and timely stakeholder engagement, which informs strategic planning and mitigates potential conflicts with other industries.  
  • Environmental Stewardship: Altalis data supports responsible forestry practices by providing critical information on wildlife habitats and water resources. By leveraging detailed terrain and habitat information, companies can optimize operational planning, minimize disturbance to sensitive ecosystems, and ensure compliance with stringent environmental regulations
  • Strengthen Sustainability: Altalis data facilitates data-driven decisions for sustainable forest practices. Leveraging high-resolution data, forestry companies can optimize reforestation efforts, monitor forest health, and track the effectiveness of sustainable management strategies. This ensures the long-term viability of Alberta's forests and contributes to responsible resource stewardship.
  • Enhance Operational Efficiency: Altalis data enables efficient planning and execution of forestry operations, from road building and harvest block layout to timber transportation and reforestation efforts. This optimizes productivity, reduces costs, and enhances worker safety. Access to infrastructure data allows for strategic planning of transportation routes and minimizes potential disruptions to operations.
  • Mitigate Wildfire Risk: By integrating Altalis data with their operational data and real-time fire information, forestry companies can make informed decisions to mitigate wildfire risks, protect valuable resources, and ensure the safety of their personnel. 
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Contact Altalis today to learn more about how our comprehensive data can help your organization.
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Use Cases

Cut logs, forestry operation
North American Forestry Company

Forestry Industry

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About Altalis – www.altalis.com

Established in 1998, we have been the authoritative source of spatial data and imagery in Alberta for over 25 years.  We are the leading data management, maintenance, and distribution company in Alberta, and ensure the continued updating, re-engineering, storage, distribution, value-added redistribution, and general management of primary provincial mapping datasets.  Our goal is to make mapping products more available, accessible, accurate, and affordable.  We are your trusted source of spatial data.  

Our state-of-the-art webstore, Altalis.com, is powered by AWS enabling reliable, fast and secure data deliveries.  Customers can explore, view, and acquire spatial data products both paid and open data with the click of a button. We take pride in providing exceptional customer service and building long-term relationships with our clients. Our experienced customer service team is available to answer any questions you may have about finding the right data to meet your needs.

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