Gaetan Pelletier is the Executive Director of the Northern Hardwoods Research Institute in Edmundston, New Brunswick. With over 30 years of forestry experience, Gaetan reflects on some of the key technologies that have digitally transformed the forest industry. Lidar, drones, SLAM, and harvester heads are all areas of applied research that excites Gaetan and keeps him from ever considering retirement. With AI “black boxes”, Gaetan reminds us that we still need to be able to explain model outputs and there is no better way of doing that than getting out in the woods.