The Taiwan Forestry Research Institute collaborated with award-winning Australian photographer Steven Pearce to photograph Taiwan’s tallest tree, the Heaven Sword of Daan River (大安溪倚天劍), in its full height at an event yesterday.
The Heaven Sword, an 84.1m-tall Cryptomeria-like Taiwania located around the head of the Daan River, was identified in 2023 by the research team Taiwan Champion Trees using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging.
Photo: CNA
Pearce has been working with his wife, epiphyte researcher Jennifer Sanger, on forest conservation since 2012.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute
They have been to New Zealand, the US Pacific Northwest, California and Panama, as well as Taiwan to research canopies and photograph giant trees.
It is the third time he has been to Taiwan, Pearce told a news conference, adding that he felt honored to have been invited on the team to see the nation’s giant trees firsthand.
The Heaven Sword is “the international tree expedition of the year,” as Taiwan Champion Trees is unique in its effort to gather a team of experts and embark on “such a big journey to see one tree,” he said.
“We don’t have the same respect for our trees in Tasmania and it’s a long journey that me and my wife and our group of friends have been out for many years to try and get the giant trees in Tasmania protected,” Pearce said.
“Advocating and pushing for giant trees has become a special icon of my home [Tasmania, Australia] ... and it’s amazing for it to be happening here in Taiwan,” he said.
“This was the most difficult tree trip I have ever been on,” Pearce said, adding that the forests and scenery he saw in Taiwan was “equivalent to anywhere in the world.”
The photographic equipment used to photograph the Heaven Sword was a simple camera that can be bought from a regular shop in Taiwan, he said.
The method was to “scan” the tree by taking different sets of photos from bottom to top and then use Photoshop to “align all the layers” to reconstruct the image of the tree in its full height, Pearce said.
“My want for doing all this work is to get people to appreciate trees, forests and the environment, and to fall in love with them ... because sometimes it’s our lack of understanding ... which allows processes that are quite destructive to happen,” he said.
Taiwan Forestry Research Institute assistant researcher Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君) said the lightweight camera was suitable for the strenuous hike.
Pearce’s excellent skills were reflected in how he produced giant tree photographs with a regular camera and a simple method, she said.
National Cheng Kung University geomatics professor Wang Chi-kuei (王驥魁) cited data from the then-Council of Agriculture recorded in 2016 as saying that Taiwan has about 950 million trees.
His laboratory used LiDAR imaging to locate the base and top of a tree, and calculate the distance between them to identify giant trees that were taller than 65m, he said.
As tree bases can be misidentified due to interference from escarpments, an optimal visualization technique was introduced to create a rotatable sectional view, Wang said.
Each tree located was rotated to its best section view either automatically or manually, and then 71,751 images of the trees were crowdsourced to about 200 Internet users to help calculate the trees’ height, significantly reducing the team’s workload, he said.
Data related to the trees’ locations were all removed before crowdsourcing the images for confidentiality, Wang added.
Locations of 941 giant trees identified using LiDAR were handed to the team for on-site observation and measurement, which could yield results that are different from the data, he said.
For example, the Three Chilan Sisters (棲蘭三姊妹) were thought to be a giant tree from LiDAR imaging, but it turned out to be three Cryptomeria-like Taiwania growing together, Wang added.
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