Spotting dead and downed trees that can fuel explosive fires is like searching for a needle in a haystack for forestry crews. Not so for drones, which can survey thousands of acres in a single afternoon, easily accessing landscapes that people generally can’t.
Forest managers are increasingly turning to them and other aerial imagery to pick out potential hotspots otherwise hidden in plain sight in a bid to protect critical infrastructure.
Wildfires caused more than C$1 billion ($711 million) in insured losses across Canada and more than $5.5 billion in total economic losses across the US in 2023 alone, and major fires have ripped across the Mediter