Research theme

Monitoring biodiversity

Which plants and animals live on the sites, and how can restoration work improve their diverse, vibrant living ecosystems? Tracking and understanding how species respond to restoration over time (with the help of AI).

DeepForest’s mission is to cultivate landscapes that serve as tools for carbon removal and biodiversity restoration. Observations of the land, plants, and wildlife provide a continuous ecosystem health pulse to monitor as we attempt to restore and improve sites. We prototype and deploy new technologies for field surveys, camera traps, and AI-controlled sensing to improve the cost and operational ease of continuous ecosystem monitoring.

Projects

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Active Underway

AI-managed remote sensing

Remote cameras at San Domingo Arbory that upload images on their own, day and night (infrared after dark), and AI processing of drone footage and smartphone photos from the field: part of a broader effort to use computer vision models and AI agents to understand sensor data and images from the sites, feeding our digital twins.

San Domingo — AI-powered land monitoring, Monitoring biodiversity

Field journal

All 14 entries
  • Bright green new grass grows through flattened, pale dry grass in a sloping meadow with leafless trees, below an oak and pine covered hill under heavy winter cloud.

    · San Domingo

    Green grass under last summer's thatch

    Late in the afternoon of December 23, 2025, new green grass was coming up through the flattened, bleached thatch of last summer's growth…

  • At night, a black-and-white skunk with its bushy tail raised stands in short green grass beside a dirt track, lit by a bright beam, with its shadow on the track behind it. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Two skunks on a November night

    Two skunks crossed a grassy track on the hilltop at Woodland Hilltop Arbory at about 8:20 pm on November 21, 2025, caught in the beam of a…

  • A large, rounded paw print pressed into soft, gray-green mud, with an outspread hand beside it for scale. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    A large paw print in the mud

    Late in the afternoon of October 22, 2025, we found a large paw print pressed into soft, algae-streaked mud at San Domingo Arbory. Beside…

  • Four deer stand and graze in dry golden grass beneath the spreading branches of an oak, beside its dark trunk.

    · San Domingo

    Deer at first light in the dry meadow

    Four deer were grazing at the edge of a meadow under the oaks at San Domingo Arbory just before 7:30 am on October 11, 2025. Two were…

  • A slender snake banded in dark brown and cream crosses a pale gravel road toward a bank of dry grass and green shrubs.

    · San Domingo

    A kingsnake crossing the ranch road

    In the early afternoon of June 14, 2025, a snake banded in dark brown and cream crossed a gravel ranch road at San Domingo Arbory and…

  • A shrub with long, narrow, toothed leaves on reddish stems holds clusters of small pale lavender flowers, in a grassy opening dotted with blue lupine spikes. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    Yerba santa in bloom among the lupine

    On a cloudy afternoon on April 26, shrubs with long, toothed leaves and clusters of pale lavender flowers were in bloom on the open slopes…

  • Two tall pines and a spreading oak stand at the edge of a bright green meadow, with the last orange sunlight on conifers along the ridge behind and a clear blue sky. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    Tall green grass in the meadow at dusk

    By the evening of April 18, the grass in one of the meadows at San Domingo Arbory had grown tall and bright green, and patches of lupine…

  • A broad, rounded shrub covered in spikes of purple and lavender pea-like flowers stands in green grass, below shrubs and pines against a blue sky. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    Bush lupine in full bloom

    A bush lupine at San Domingo Arbory was in full bloom on the afternoon of April 12: a broad, rounded shrub covered in spikes of purple and…

  • A single spike of deep blue-and-white lupine flowers rises from wood-chip mulch, with young lupine leaves at its base and blurred green shrubs and trees behind. +2 photos

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Lupine through the wood-chip mulch

    Lupine (Lupinus sp.) was flowering through the wood-chip mulch at Woodland Hilltop Arbory on April 6, 2025, among low, leafy shrubs, on…

  • Three leaning oak trunks thickly coated in bright green moss rise above ferns and leafy shrubs, with a misty, forested canyon behind. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    Moss on the oaks on a damp March morning

    On a damp, misty morning on March 2, the oaks on a shaded slope at San Domingo Arbory were coated in thick, bright green moss, from the…

  • The deeply furrowed gray bark of a large oak trunk, studded with dozens of acorns pressed into small holes, with bare branches, blue sky and a green meadow at the left edge. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    Acorn woodpecker granary in an old oak

    On March 1 we found a large oak at the edge of a meadow at San Domingo Arbory with its bark studded with acorns, each pressed into its own…