# Airborne laser survey maps millions of young trees across Cairngorms

_Published Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 1:05 AM EDT · Science · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Airborne laser survey maps millions of young trees across Cairngorms — Primary](https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/hires/2026/successful-woodland-ex.jpg)

A University of Cambridge-led team used airborne laser scanning to map more than 6 million individual trees across 569 square kilometers of Scotland's Cairngorms, demonstrating a way to track young woodland over a large area. Its analysis found 2.65 million trees under 5 meters tall and more than 5,235 hectares of formerly open land now supporting young woodland.

The team used AI-supported analysis to estimate tree heights from the scans and checked its results against ground measurements and field surveys. Researchers say the method could complement or partially replace hundreds of hours of manual surveying; that labor saving has not yet been measured.

## Sources

- [Phys.org](https://phys.org/news/2026-09-aerial-reveal-successful-woodland-expansion.html)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/FXz1qBUln36oMZZD9YBmD8
Published: 2026-09-24T05:05:52.516Z
Story chronology: 2026-09-24T04:00:01.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-09-24T08:01:14.943Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)