Hello Everyone,
I’m Paul Harold, co-founder of EcoSentience. Over the past few months, we’ve embarked on a unique journey, focusing on integrating AI and traditional woodland conservation techniques. Today, I’d like to share our progress with you.
Starting a not-for-profit project has been an exciting adventure. We’ve been working on understanding the nuances of this sector as we strive to combine AI in conservation, aiming to make a sustainable impact on ancient woodlands.
Our primary goal is to develop an AI model, specifically tailored to ancient woodland ecosystems. As part of this initiative, we’re planning on creating autonomous AI woodland agents – AI entities capable of gathering and interpreting environmental data from our woodland of focus, Mickley Wood. As a start towards data collection we are using an Ubibot WS1Pro environment sensor to begin to capture environment data as well as exploring possible genomic sequencing from soil samples.
Networking has been vital. My recent connection with The Woodland Trust and participation in the local “WoodNet” event with Living Woods North East, other woodland owners and professionals, has opened doors to numerous possibilities.
Being at the forefront of AI advancements, initial research indicates that EcoSentience appears to be a pioneer at the intersection of AI and woodland conservation. With the assistance of OpenAI’s GPT, we’ve brought our ideas to life and shared them with you through our EcoSentience website and this Mickley Wood blog.
Spring has brought growth, not just for the woodlands, but for our knowledge base. I’ve spent time identifying various plants, enriching our data, and learning about traditional conservation practices.
We’re now actively seeking collaborations with local universities and exploring innovative technologies like Lidar for woodland mapping with Vertinetik.
Working full time on EcoSentience has instilled in me a profound respect for the complex world of woodland ecosystems. Our initial six-month plan focuses on initiating data collection, research, analysis, and setting up and funding EcoSentience.
This journey has been exhilarating and challenging. We’re exploring new pathways in woodland conservation and look forward to sharing more updates with you soon.
Paul