Our Giving Tuesday goal is to fund the purchase of a high-quality drone and staff training to help us more safely and effectively protect the wild places you love in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area.

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How will a drone support and enhance the Conservancy's work?
In addition to the 6,000 acres of nature preserves you have helped protect, we protect over 20,000 acres of protected private property which require monitoring on a yearly basis. Many of these properties have steep, rocky, marshy, or thickly brambled areas that make it extremely difficult to safely maintain footing while doing the yearly conservation easement visits. Some properties are very large and have required a plane for monitoring, or extensive hours in the field to hike the entire property.

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What are the benefits of using a drone in combination with our other methods?

Enhanced Monitoring and Safety: Drones offer a safer and more efficient way to monitor properties and allow visual access to difficult or hazardous terrain more easily than traditional methods.

Comprehensive Property Insights: Drones provide a complete view of properties, overcoming obstacles like thick brush or marshy conditions, and help our team to easily and quickly identify changes or encroachments.

Efficient and Documented Records: The use of a drone will reduce reliance on plane monitoring, save time on-site, and create detailed video and image records for comparison, public storytelling, and legal documentation. It will enable more annual visits to be completed in one day, reducing expenses for gas and time on the road.

Increased Public Awareness: Drones help tell a compelling story of the Conservancy’s work, enhancing public understanding and support of the wild places you protect and love.

How will the funds be used?
The goal of our Eyes in the Sky, Care on the Ground campaign is to acquire a drone and train a minimum of one member of the communications team and up to two other staff members and/or volunteers who will become certified to operate the drone so that the most difficult properties will be able to be monitored in a more safe and efficient way. Additionally, the drone operator in her role as Communications Director will be able to acquire and use drone footage to further tell the story of this conservation work, showing the beauty of what has been protected and inspiring others to get involved in protecting native habitats and farmlands in the Driftless Area. Some of the most difficult properties are on a five year rotation because it is cost prohibitive to visit them more frequently, so your help with this project will help ensure that not only will monitoring be safer, but more consistent over time.

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Which drone will be purchased?
After a lot of research, we have selected the DJI Air 3 Fly More Combo as the drone of choice for our needs. A leader in drone technology, DJI has created a durable, high-quality mid-level drone that is perfect for our needs at the Conservancy. With both wide-angle lens and zoom capabilities, it will allow the user to capture images showing the large sections of property in both still and video format, as well as zoom in to inspect areas where there are possible easement violations. The longer battery life on the drone will allow the user to reach the far edges of the property without having to navigate difficult terrain or return frequently to the user for new batteries. This model is the first to allow you to plan a route ahead of time, program it, and run the program again later, allowing future users to follow the same flight path. This feature will be extremely helpful for comparing properties year after year. The combo includes everything needed to get started right away, so there won’t be any surprise expenses right after purchase. Link to combo: https://www.dji.com/air-3

Why is training required?
In order to use a drone effectively and safely and follow all of the federal guidelines, the Conservancy will expect drone users to complete a 15 hour online training program, followed by a Part 107 drone certification test in Madison, Wisconsin. Following this, we will require each person to attend a 2 to 4 hour hands-on training session where they will practice in the field to understand the controls and how to capture imagery safely and effectively.

Will all properties be monitored by drones going forward?
No. Your support of this drone acquisition will allow our team and volunteers to pick the largest and/or difficult properties and use the drone for those locations. We will still rely on volunteers to conduct annual visits by walking many of the properties, and whenever possible, we will visit the properties in person to talk with landowners to discuss changes and plans as we always have.

We need your help.
Your Giving Tuesday donation helps us put eyes in the sky to support our care on the ground. It will allow for safer and more efficient monitoring, reduced fuel consumption, creation of excellent photographic records of properties, and allow us to tell our story in a more compelling way. 

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