By creating a digital replica, or twin, of a pine stand, researchers were able to simulate its year-to-year growth and see how different thinning decisions might play out. Credit: David Carter, Michigan State University

In his office at Michigan State University, forestry professor David Carter shows off an image of a virtual forest on his laptop. It's not just any forest. It's a computerized replica, or "digital twin," of a loblolly pine stand, created using lidar, the laser scanning technology that self-driving cars use to map their surroundings.

Carter says virtual landscapes like these could allow forest managers to test different management strategies in a simulation before deploying them in the real world.

The concept is not new.…