Forest Eyes in the Sky

Selected theme: The Impact of Drones on Forest Ecosystem Management. Join us as we explore how aerial insights, smart sensors, and thoughtful practices are reshaping stewardship of forests—safer surveys, quicker decisions, and more resilient ecosystems. Subscribe and share your experiences to help this community grow.

Biodiversity and Wildlife Monitoring Without Disturbance

At first light, thermal sensors can spot resting deer, roosting birds, or elusive mammals along riparian corridors without noisy intrusion. Flight altitudes and paths are planned to avoid stress. What wildlife protocols guide your operations? Share your guidelines for minimal disturbance.

Biodiversity and Wildlife Monitoring Without Disturbance

Multispectral imagery highlights spectral signatures of invasives before they dominate. Early detections support rapid, targeted removal that preserves native understory. Have you mapped kudzu, reed canary grass, or gorse by drone? Add your detection thresholds and seasonal insights below.

Early detection beyond the lookout

Thermal anomalies and smoke signatures can be flagged during patrols and forwarded with accurate coordinates to incident command. Combined with wind data, teams model spread scenarios sooner. What tools do you use for real-time alerts? Comment with your preferred analytics platform.

Prescribed burns with precision

Fuel-load maps, canopy metrics, and slope models help design safer fire breaks and ignition patterns. Post-burn flights validate severity and containment, closing the loop for adaptive planning. If drones shaped your burn plan, share the key layer you relied on most.

After the flames fade

Severity maps guide erosion control, seed mixes, and road stabilization. Repeat surveys track sprouting and natural regeneration, documenting what’s working. Have a recovery story others could learn from? Subscribe and send us your before–after maps to feature in a future post.

Health Diagnostics: Pests, Disease, and Drought Stress

Multispectral indices like NDVI and red-edge NDRE pick up chlorophyll changes that hint at water stress or nutrient imbalance. Managers prioritize ground checks where indices fall below thresholds, saving time. What spectral bands have helped you most? Share your band combos.

Edge trees often show stress first. Regular flights detect subtle discoloration patterns that foreshadow bark beetle activity, enabling targeted sanitation cuts. If you’ve built an early-warning workflow, tell us how frequently you fly and which cues you trust.

Rather than blanket responses, maps guide precise interventions—selective thinning, pheromone traps, or carefully permitted drone applications where allowed. This reduces chemical use and protects non-target species. Subscribe to receive our template for site-specific treatment planning.

Ethics, Regulations, and Data Stewardship

Engage local and Indigenous communities before flying, communicate objectives, and set buffers around nests and dens. Quiet flight windows and visible signage build trust. How do you earn social license for monitoring flights? Share your engagement playbook with readers.

Ethics, Regulations, and Data Stewardship

Clear pipelines—naming conventions, metadata, and QA—turn raw images into reliable layers. Cloud or edge processing with version control preserves provenance. If you’ve adopted FAIR data principles, comment with the practices that made the biggest difference.

Ethics, Regulations, and Data Stewardship

Know your jurisdiction: FAA Part 107, EASA categories, or local permits; manage VLOS, BVLOS waivers, and wildlife disturbance rules. Preflight risk assessments and logs protect teams and projects. Subscribe for our regulation checklist updated each season.

Ethics, Regulations, and Data Stewardship

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Plan the flight, plan the forest

Pick weather windows, define GSD targets, and align flight lines with terrain. Batteries, spares, and emergency procedures live on a single checklist. What’s in your preflight ritual? Share your must-have items to help others learn from your experience.

From pixels to policy

Orthomosaics feed into structure-from-motion models, habitat classifications, and risk layers that inform harvest scheduling, road closures, or restoration bids. Open-source tools like QGIS and OpenDroneMap lower barriers. Subscribe to get our starter project templates.

A ranger’s morning with a drone

Mina lifts off at sunrise, tracing a valley where drought browned the canopy last year. By lunch, her dashboard flags three hotspots for crews to assess. Her note reads: “Less guessing, more healing.” Share your field story to inspire the next ranger.

Join our mailing list