Drone, Drone On The Range: USDA may use drones to monitor vast Western rangeland

USDA scientists have found that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a tool used by the military, may be suitable for keeping an eye on changing land-use patterns across vast tracts of Western rangeland. Ranchers, government agencies and private land managers often need to survey vast, remote rangelands to see how they are being altered by floods, forest fires or other events. Ground-based surveys can be costly and time-consuming. Satellite imagery is improving, but satellites can't provide the resolution needed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its assessments of millions of acres of federally owned lands, or by private land owners who want to monitor erosion control, the creep of invasive species, or other land-use changes. UAVs allow operators to survey large areas whenever they want, such as immediately after a major rain storm or forest fire. At the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Jornada Experimental Range in Las Cruces, N.M., Al Rango, Jeff Herrick and Craig Winters, along with Andrea Laliberte, a New Mexico State University researcher, are studying the potential effectiveness of a 20-pound UAV with a 6-foot wingspan that cruises 700 feet above the earth, collecting digital images...more

And the following is from the ARS web page:

ARS scientists throughout the nation are using aerial photography to monitor a variety of lands with digital cameras and sensors, from the flat lands of the Chesapeake Bay’s Maryland Eastern Shore to the national parks, forests, mountains, and deserts of the West. The cameras and sensors are flown aboard all sorts of aircraft—from regular small passenger planes to light airplanes like the Dragonfly to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Besides Idaho, Booth has also done aerial surveys in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, looking at a variety of vegetation, including invasive and native trees, juniper woodlands, grasslands, and shrublands—on sites as diverse as gas pipeline rights-of-way and riverbanks.

Regular readers know I've been predicting this.  Range cons will be ridin' software saddles and you'll get your trespass notice or cut in carrying capacity emailed to you along with an aerial photograph.  Kinda like they do with red light cameras in the city.  A jihad by jet is heading' out west, compliments of your friendly federal auto-pilot.  Smokey the Bear will go to work for the FAA and Interior's buffalo will sprout wings.  Don't you look forward to it!

Permittees who aren't collecting ground data in self-defense will get droned out of business...you better start your monitoring program today.

Me, I'm gonna start breedin' and sellin' camouflage cows.   

And be watchin' at the feed store for DuBois Drone Detectors that'll hang from your windmill.  

The DuBois Drone Destroyers aren't available yet as their design is still in its early stages.  I'm gonna test them at Bill Richardson's Spaceport America and for goodness sake don't tell the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Drones what I'm up to.

Uh oh, looks like I've got some underground work to do too.

Town Using Sensors Embedded In Streets To Locate Illegally-Parked Cars Be careful where you decide to park your car. Massapequa Park will be the first Long Island municipality to use electronic sensors embedded in the street to detect illegally parked vehicles. Police can quickly slap a $25 fine on the vehicle after the wireless discs notify them of the violation by transmitting a signal to the officers’ cellphones...

Damn. They're overhead and under the ground too. Signals to cop's cell phone. Well, I'll probably make enough money off the DuBois Drone Detectors and Destroyers to come up with something to use in town too.  But I could use a little help on this one.