DRONES IN CONSERVATION
Flying Machines
Drones help TNC reach new heights for conservation Days in the field for The Nature Conservancy usually track toward earthbound activities. Think wading
Consider just a few of the more imaginative ways the Conservancy has deployed the remote-controlled aircraft in the past couple of years: • Instead of flushing ducks from their nests using old-school chain- drag methods, TNC staff in North Dakota deployed less-obtrusive and quicker-moving drones to study the waterfowl from high overhead. • In California, TNC ocean scientists flew high-tech cameras over kelp forests, allowing them to zoom in on waving pockets of seaweed with a precision that put existing satellite imagery to shame. • When staff in Washington experimented with using dynamite to open new estuary channels,
they used drones to safely record the blasts so they could review the operation in detail. There is no dynamite in play here, but TNC staff in Missouri are also experimenting with a drone. Brett Perkins, grazing and grassland manager in Missouri, is our team’s first drone operator. Based at Dunn Ranch Prairie, Perkins has put the flying machine to use monitoring the preserve’s bison herds, tracking the progression of beaver dams on Little Creek and even hovering low to spot- spray invasive blackberry bushes. He learns a little more with each flight—and imagines new possibilities.
through streams, brushing away head-high vegetation or rolling through the tall grass in a UTV to reach remote locales. But TNC’s fieldwork is increasingly pressing into new territory: the sky. The evolution of drone technology is making the power of flight more affordable and more practical for conservation work. That is opening a dizzying array of possibilities. Across TNC, our staff is experimenting with drones, pushing the technology as we develop ways to do more and better work. The results have been innovative and, at times, even explosive.
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THIS PAGE Clint Harris (seated) explains drone use for prescribed fires. © McRee Anderson
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