{"id":2839,"date":"2013-10-03T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T18:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myassettag.com\/blog\/?p=2839"},"modified":"2013-10-03T14:56:03","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T18:56:03","slug":"using-rfid-tags-replant-rainforest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myassettag.com/blog\/using-rfid-tags-replant-rainforest\/","title":{"rendered":"Using RFID tags to replant the rainforest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The majestic koa tree is one of Hawaii\u2019s\u2014and the world\u2019s\u2014 natural wonders, but a century of logging and agricultural development has decimated that state\u2019s tropical rainforests. One company is trying to bring the koa forests back, and they\u2019re using RFID tags to do so.<\/p>\n

Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods<\/a> is a hybrid enterprise\u2014a for-profit corporation that has a non-profit public-benefit component written into its incorporation documents. Since 2009, the Honolulu-based company has been planting koa trees cultivated from seed gathered by hand from surviving old-growth trees. Its goal is ambitious: to rebuild the tropical rainforest \u201cand restore the diversity and integrity of the native ecosystem,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n

\"Handful<\/a>

Koa seeds gathered from old-growth trees<\/p><\/div>\n

So far, they have donated 1,000 acres of land on the Hamakua coast of Hawaii\u2019s Big Island to reforestation. Some 75 percent of the trees they plant there are destined for permanent reforestation, never to be harvested. The other 25 percent are harvested for timber, following sustainable forestry practices.<\/p>\n

RFID tags are a major part of the company\u2019s business plan, as each seedling has its own EPC Second Generation Passive RFID-encoded tag that enables Hawaiian Legacy Hardwood foresters to keep track of the tree as it grows.<\/p>\n

The RFID tags are \u201cthe key to our whole project,\u201d says Chief Information Officer William Gilliam. Each tag is encoded, he explains, with \u201ca hexadecimal serial number that is matched to all of that tree\u2019s data in our database. We store everything about the tree, including which tree its seed came from (we call them Mother Trees), when it was planted, when any watering or fertilization was done, . . . \u00a0any photos we have collected, pretty much everything we can. All of it is referenced by that serial number.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an improbable love match between modern technology and Mother Nature. The koa tree, known in formal scientific parlance as Acacia koa<\/i><\/a>,<\/i> has long been prized for the beauty of its wood. Its color ranges from brilliant orange to gold, red, yellow, brown or ivory, and its distinctively curly grain gives it a three-dimensional appearance. It\u2019s hardly a surprise that koa was the favored wood of Hawaiian royalty.<\/p>\n

It was also the material of choice for Hawaii\u2019s famed dugout canoes; mature trees average 50 feet, but many grow to heights of 100 feet or more. Today it is prized by makers of furniture and musical instruments. Because of its scarcity, the price of koa wood has risen 1000 percent in the past 10 years, according to Gilliam.<\/p>\n

\"Koa<\/a>

Koa tree in sunset<\/p><\/div>\n

Replanting the koa is more than an exercise in nostalgia\u2014and more than a commercial proposition. The koa is the habitat of a number of tropical species including the \u2018akiap\u014dl\u0101<\/i>, the Hawaiian woodpecker, which is endangered. More koa trees mean a greater chance of survival for the bird.<\/p>\n

The koa is also a nitrogen-fixing plant, meaning that it can survive in nitrogen-poor soils. That ability to adapt is important, because the koa is a pillar of Hawaii\u2019s tropical rain forest, and rain forests play a vital role in countering the overabundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide that causes global warming.<\/p>\n

The company has also begun to plant sandalwood trees, another species endemic to Hawaii, and other rare and endangered plants. It\u2019s one of those companies that wants to combine doing well with doing good. Co-founders Jeffrey Dunster, CEO, and Darrell Fox, COO, spent years as partners in a mergers-and-acquisitions consultancy before launching Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods.<\/p>\n

Their business plan includes a for-profit timber operation which grows trees for harvest and offers investment opportunities to groups and individuals; the non-profit legacy reforestation project, which allows individuals to \u201csponsor\u201d trees in honor of a loved one for; and an onsite legacy tree tour operation that allow \u00a0visitors to plant their own trees.<\/p>\n

RFID tags are key to all facets of the operation. In addition to monitoring the growth and care of each tree, the tags enable faraway investors and sponsors to view their trees via satellite applications like Google Earth, by entering the RFID serial number and accompanying GPS coordinates.<\/p>\n

CIO Gilliam explains that \u201cThe tag itself is a plastic adhesive label… We encode them on a Zebra printer and then affix them to a regular plastic nursery stake. Then we coat the whole assembly in roofing compound to weatherproof it. We are currently in negotiations with a manufacturer for premade tags that would eliminate this process.\u201d\u00a0 Once the tags are made, he adds, the nursery stake \u201cis stuck into the seedling\u2019s pot and planted with the tree in the field. For the first eight years of the tree\u2019s life, the tagged nursery stake remains.<\/p>\n

“We stick them in the ground next to the planted tree,” he said. Then, “in year 8, we’ll retag with a band-type tag that will go around the trunk.\u00a0Our next steps are to allow the sponsor\/owner to access some of this info through our website and eventually add some of their own. For example, say you sponsor a legacy tree for your grandmother. You could upload photos of her and music, videos, etc., to the database under that tree\u2019s ID. We will use this data to add layers of interactivity to the actual forest. By incorporating RFID readers into handhelds and screens in our tour vehicles, we will be able to showcase each tree\u2019s digital content while walking\/driving through the forest. Every tree will tell its own story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor does Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods intend to stop there, says Gilliam. \u201cWe are talking to landowners both here in Hawaii and on the mainland about replicating our system for sustainable reforestation or timber projects. The innovation is the tagging\/GPS combo and the system we have developed to manage it all. It gives landowners a way to realistically track what trees they have and what is happening to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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