Business

FORUS Research is an analytic software and consulting business in the province of New Brunswick, Canada

Since 2010 FORUS Research has provided public agencies and forest products companies with elegant solutions for blending big forest inventory data and complex forest growth models into strategic and operational forest plans.

Areas of expertise include tree taper and product volume calculations, forecasting stand development, spruce budworm decision support, site productivity prediction, forest inventory design and LIDAR, forest carbon life cycle accounting, and forest planning optimization.

Software is focused primarily on stand growth and yield estimation for forest planning. The software provides scalable, flexible approaches to manage and analyse thousands of stand model simulations. Given wide ranging client needs for stand models, FORUS Research has developed a range of software components to meet these demands. Where possible, these components link with other mainstream forest planning software, such as Woodstock.

Research

FORUS Research works closely with public and private institutions specializing in forest analytics

Advancement of forest analytics through collabrative problem solving is the primary mode of operation of the business

Research partners include the University of New Brunswick, University of Maine, the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, JD. Irving Limited, Remsoft Inc., Leading Edge Geomatics, and the Northern Hardwood Research Institute.

Research areas

  • Stand model calibration
  • Forest productivity prediction
  • Development of OSM (an extensible stand model API)
  • Spruce budworm impact and mitigation modelling
  • Spatial automation and optimization of aerial spray treatment blocking for forest protection planning
  • Individual tree imputation from LIDAR

Founder

Chris Hennigar

BScF, PhD, RPF(New Brunswick), Owner

Dr. Hennigar started FORUS Research in 2010 while studying forest management at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. He specializes in forest inventory design, stand modelling, forest management optimization, and software development.

Clients

(past & present)

  • New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources
  • Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources
  • Newfoundland Department of Natural Resources
  • Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
  • PEI Communities, Land and Environment
  • Canadian Forest Service

  • University of New Brunswick
  • Université de Moncton
  • University of Maine
  • Université de Montreal

  • J.D. Irving, Limited
  • Forest Protection Limited
  • Northern Hardwood Research Institute
  • Acadian Timber, Inc.
  • Katahdin Forest Management, Ltd.
  • Leading Edge Geomatics
  • Remsoft, Inc.
  • Forsite Consultants, Ltd.
  • American Forest Management