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Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will work together to evaluate whether small unmanned aircraft operated by the USGS can save state wildlife managers time, money and offer a safer and enhanced alternative to gather greater sage-grouse data.

On Wednesday, April 3 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the CSU Cooperative Extension Hall in Kremmling, interested members of the public can see the aircraft and learn more about its benefits for science and wildlife management as well as its cost saving potential. Representatives from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the USGS and the Bureau of Land Management will on hand to answer questions.

“The aircraft proved successful in other recent wildlife inventory projects conducted by USGS,” said Lyle Sidener, area wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife in Hot Sulphur Springs. “We are interested to see if greater sage-grouse will tolerate the craft flying near their leks at the lower altitudes necessary to provide useful data.”

A “lek” is the traditional breeding ground where males perform a distinctive, dramatic and complex dance to attract mates in a ritual believed to be thousands of years old.

The evaluation will occur on both public and private land. Local landowners where flights are planned have been consulted and have agreed to allow the craft to fly near leks on their property.

Currently, to gather the critical data necessary for effective management, Colorado’s wildlife managers spend enormous amounts of time in the air every year; however, data from low-flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft is often difficult to obtain and can be unsafe for employees. In addition, wildlife managers estimate that the cost saving potential is substantial, with the expense of unmanned aircraft being a fraction of the costs of manned flights.

Because the small unmanned aircraft is smaller, less noisy and can fly safely as low as 150 feet off the ground, it may provide wildlife managers with views of known, historic, or undiscovered leks currently inaccessible due to snow, mud and difficult terrain.

“It could prove to be an invaluable tool,” said Brad Petch, senior terrestrial biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “Manned flights will always be necessary, but if a smaller, less expensive remote controlled aircraft can give us safer access and views we have not had in the past, wildlife will certainly benefit, and so will the citizens of Colorado.”

Greater sage-grouse are an important and iconic species found in Colorado and several other western states. In recent years, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, local governments, stakeholder groups, landowners and land management agencies have been collaborating on strategies to preserve and increase the species’ numbers across the northwest part of the state.

The aircraft, or sUAS, weighs 4.2 pounds, measures 36 inches in length and has a 54-inch wingspan. It carries two types of cameras, is remote controlled and flies from 100 to 400 feet above ground. Its flight duration is 60 minutes can be flown within line of sight up to one mile from the pilots location.

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  • Gary -   we used a Computer Vision (CV) which is machine vision, process.   Basic start, we just counted waterfowl on the surface of potholes. We are attempting to figure out in what manner we could use FLIR in a Prairie Pot-hole region to pick up te heat signature of ground nesting raptors so we can then observe from a distance without flushing them from their nests (since we know their position in the field).      Cheers, Byron

  • Moderator
    Sadly I recently stick mine in the mud and even with my reinforcements the light fiberglass fuse is shot. Fortunately I pulled a mold and am working on a kevlar replacement.
  • Moderator

    Back in January Patrick spoke to the USGS on the POD @bcrow are you using machine vision to help your counts?

  • Josh,

    The RQ-11 in this project is not a replica... It is a surplus-ed RQ-11. A real one not an RC Clone. Just FYI.

    I to have a clone RQ-11 with the APM 2.5. It works great. I love the platform so far.

  • 3692666735?profile=original

    Thanks for posting. I love it when people share all the positive uses for UAS operations.
    I really believe that Wildlife / natural resource departments are really going to see the advantages, and uses for UAS operations. We have using ours for wetland mapping. water fowl survey (photos of potholes in a prairie area without flushing sitting waterfowl for counts), survey ground nesting raptors, and at present, survey of curlew nesting habitat.
    Thanks for sharing
    Byron
  • Agriculture and Wildlife Robotic benefits/positives is what made me first gain interest in the robotics field.  Thank for sharing this Tom it was a good read!

    I'm currently working on finishing the same exact RQ-11 Replica that is used in this project! :D So cool!

    3692655998?profile=original

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