Aerial and Drone Surveys

Efficient, accurate, reliable.  HWA utilizes aerial surveys for a variety of research applications including roosting locations, population estimation, big-game seasonal habitat use, winter concentration areas and spring breeding surveys.

When in the air, our biologists are equipped with resource-grade handheld computers with integrated GPS receivers or tablet computers with external GPS receivers for spatial data capture, attribution, editing, and  navigation.  Examples of aerial survey experience include:

• Resource selection by greater sage-grouse during severe winter conditions, Great Divide Basin, Wyoming

• Telemetry-based assessment of waterfowl nest depredation by mesocarnivores, Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge, Idaho

• Raptor nest inventory and status surveys via helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft, over 100 projects in Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado

• Greater sage-grouse and sharp-tailed grouse lek surveys

• GPS telemetry elk study, Raton Basin, Colorado

• Experimental black-footed ferret surveys via helicopter, Natrona County, Wyoming

• Mexican spotted owl habitat assessment, Southern Ute Indian Reservation, Colorado

• Waterfowl census, Duck Valley, Idaho and Nevada

• Mountain plover and prairie dog habitat inventory and assessment, various projects in Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana

Drone Survey Services

• Remotely piloted drone

• High resolution photos

• Vegetation mapping

• Photogrammetry

• Site inspections

• We also provide thermal and 3D imaging, contour mapping, HDR video

• Fast, efficient, innovative, and wider ranging survey data

• Data that can be repeatedly reviewed

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licensed, insured, and regulatory compliant

• Operated safely and responsibly

• Units have obstacle detection and collision avoidance technology