Aerial Imagery Helps Conserve Critical Habitat

Client: Inland Northwest Land Conservancy

Location: Reardan, Washington

A non-profit land trust explores the impact of climate change on a nature preserve using aerial imagery and maps captured by unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

Inland Northwest Land Conservancy (INLC) works with willing private landowners to conserve the special places that nourish wildlife and preserve the clean air, clean waters, and scenic beauty in inland NW Washington.

The organization’s primary conservation tool is a donated conservation easement. One of their easement properties is the 155-acre Deep Creek Preserve, purchased in 2015. Adjacent to the Reardan Audubon Lake Wildlife Area, Deep Creek Preserve is a fragile wetland at the confluence of multiple watersheds that provides critical habitat to migratory waterfowl.

INLC is actively investigating how climate change is affecting this property and working to ensure that effective management will continue its viability as a sanctuary for wildlife. To aid them in their investigation, we mapped the preserve, using a single fixed-wing UAS flight to capture aerial imagery and produce a super-high-resolution (~3 cm pixels) aerial map.

The aerial map was provided to the client as a large-format poster and printable field maps, and also as a georeferenced GIS-ready image for further mapping of the site—all the tools necessary to assist INLC with ongoing biological assessments by scientists, volunteers, and community.

To learn more about our conservation work, click here.