I stumbled across an interesting IoT enabled solution for monitoring the state of power poles (which in much of Australia are basically dead trees). By sensing movement via accelerometers (and possibly other sensors) you can detect movement in the poles that might be due to weakening of the timber fibre structure, forces of nature like storms or floods or even vehicle collisions. Half-jokedly there is even a suggestion that a lost adventurer could tap Morse code on the pole and be heard ;-) . A slide presentation with more detail is available here :-https://www.slideshare.net/IanMeares/generic-safe-power-netw...
