Under-canopy measurement
The forest sends a signal.We read it at the root.
Weather stations sit in clearings. Fires start under the canopy. VoltreeAI places sensors where the fuel actually is, and reads the electrical potential a living tree maintains against the soil around it.
Xylem-to-soil potential, intact tree
The problem is physical
The measurement gap
Fire danger is modelled from weather. The weather is measured in clearings.
50–200mV
Measured xylem-to-soil potential
2
Granted US patents
2008
Mechanism published in PLoS ONE
2009
First under-canopy federal deployment
National fire danger rating estimates fuel moisture from weather observations recorded in open clearings. Beneath the canopy, temperature, humidity and soil conditions diverge from those readings, and that is where ignition happens. VoltreeAI measures in place, continuously, from a sensor that sits at the root.
Field deployment, Boise 2009 — company footage
So the answer is physical: instrument the forest itself
Method
Three steps, from root to readout
Measure. An electrode pair records the potential between the xylem of a living tree and the surrounding soil. Published research attributes this potential to the pH difference between the tree and its soil.
Transmit. Nodes run on battery, with energy harvesting in evaluation as an assist. Readings move at low power to a gateway and on to the platform; the backhaul architecture for large sites is part of the current engineering programme.
Interpret. Readings are processed against reference measurements and local conditions, and delivered through an API alongside threshold alerts.
What is at stake
Market context
What is at stake
$394–893 billion
annual US wildfire cost, Joint Economic Committee range
~2,500
remote automated weather stations US fire danger is derived from, sited in clearings
754,000 km²
US wildland-urban interface
Where it lands first
Where it is applied
One sensor platform, four operating environments
Wildland urban interfaceContinuous under-canopy readings where housing meets forest.
Utility corridorsVegetation condition along transmission and distribution lines.
ViticultureVine water status across a block, measured rather than inferred.
Orchards and nutsIrrigation decisions grounded in the condition of the tree itself.
Field deployment, Boise 2009 — company footage
We have been under the canopy before
Track record
Field deployments with US federal agencies since 2009
Voltree delivered the first under-canopy sensor deployments to the USDA Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, integrated with Vaisala weather stations at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. The underlying science was established through sponsored research at MIT and published in PLoS ONE in 2008.
Historical deployments and collaborations. Named organisations are not current endorsements.
And we prove it in the open
Measuring where the fire starts
We are working with utilities, land managers and growers on field deployments. If under-canopy data would change a decision you make, we should talk.