WISCONSIN—For Nicole Shugart, the best part of her job is never knowing what she might see each day out in the field. Now that she’s certified as an unmanned aircraft system pilot, she can use drones to see farther, faster and higher than ever before—and her bird’s-eye view will be a powerful tool for understanding conditions on the forest.

“Getting to see things from that viewpoint is really cool,” Shugart said.

Shugart is part of the first cohort of UAS pilots trained in the Eastern Region. After receiving her initial UAS training in 2022, Shugart was invited back with her cohort for a week of refresher training this September. Nine pilots from across the Eastern Region came together to learn more about team performance, aviation safety and UAS program policy, as well as receive hands-on training for drone models approved for use.

With her refresher training completed, Shugart is ready to bring her expertise back to the Huron-Manistee National Forests, where she works as a multi-resource technician on the Huron Shores Ranger District, located on the eastern shore of Lower Michigan. UAS piloting adds to her diverse experiences in the Forest Service, which range from seasonal work on a botany crew, to wildland firefighting, to timber marking, to leading a wildlife crew doing monitoring and surveys.

As one of two certified UAS pilots on her district, Shugart will be in high demand. Now that the Huron-Manistee has the equipment to get their UAS program up and running, staff across the forest can soon propose projects that make use of this tool.

“When you put this little machine up 200 feet in the air, you can just see so much more in a shorter time,” Shugart said.

Having that expansive view of a forest makes it much more efficient to gather information. For example, for a reforestation project, a drone could capture aerial imagery of the landscape over hundreds of acres, rather than a person having to walk every inch of it. A drone could also capture the spread of invasive plants or survey storm damage.

Putting different remote sensors on a drone allows it to “see” more than is possible with the naked eye, providing even more information about what’s happening on the land. LiDAR, for example, uses light pulses that could capture three-dimensional data about a landscape, such as vegetation height or density. Other remote sensors could even gather information about the health of trees, making it easier to understand the impact of a particular pathogen.

Operating a drone effectively and safely takes much more than meets the eye, as Shugart and her training cohort learned.

“There’s a lot behind it,” she said.

To get carded on a particular UAS, trainees must spend flight time with someone who is already carded to instruct on it. When it comes time to fly, pilots need to create a plan, ensure that necessary documents are signed and keep maintenance and usage logs. UAS pilots must create a mission aviation safety plan and understand the airspace they are in—whether a drone is allowed in it and what other aircraft might be in the vicinity.

Now, Shugart belongs to a growing cadre of Eastern Region UAS pilots who are helping this tool for forest management take flight.

The training is hosted by the Eastern Region at the Whitewater University Innovation Center in Wisconsin, a partnership between the city of Whitewater and the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. In 2022, the Eastern Region signed a five-year lease with the innovation center to secure a safe, effective environment for Forest Service UAS training.

Here, trainees receive a mix of classroom and outdoor instruction in conducting UAS missions, which enables aircraft to be operated remotely without a pilot or crew on board.
Across the region, there are currently 28 trained UAS pilots and plans to train more due to demand across different programs as UAS becomes an essential tool for effective forest management.