Unmanned Aerial Systems tool on the Chippewa National Forest
December 26th, 2024
The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) as a technology and tool for land management agencies has been developing for many years. For the Forest Service a key set of events leading into this time included three helicopter crashes from 2003-2019 while performing aerial ignition operations resulting in fatal injuries to six personnel. Following the third crash in Texas, the Chief of the Forest Service issued a letter to the agency titled, “Reducing Employee Exposure to Aerial Prescribed Fire Operation” in the Spring of 2020. This letter indicated the need for the agency to move to UAS for aerial flight in high-risk situations like aerial ignition. It also indicated that the agency had been able to obtain all the necessary approvals to aggressively implement a formal UAS Program agency wide.
Prior to 2020, use of UAS with in the Forest Service was extremely limited. The agency did not have any aircraft and relied on DOI aircraft and pilots for brief periods of rare use. Numerous staff on the Chippewa National Forest were qualified to perform aerial ignition from helicopters and understood the risk and benefits associated with that, as well as the potential benefits of UAS. In 2020, while on assignment to Mississippi, Chippewa staff were able to work and talk with personnel from the National Forests of Mississippi who were testing UAS use for aerial ignition on their forest’s prescribed fire units just prior to the Chief’s letter. Their forest had been the location of one of the three helicopter crashes soon to be noted by the Chief, so it was important to them to better understand how UAS could improve safer access to aerial ignition and for them to lead the new program.
From the time in Mississippi and a couple other UAS experience on wildfires that summer, it was clear UAS could provide many benefits with limited tradeoffs in many Fire and Natural Resource applications. Beyond the most significant benefit of removing personnel from a high-risk flight situation, UAS also reduced flight cost, allowed for operations to be managed on site instead of remotely from airports, increased the precision of aerial ignitions, allowed for night flight recon, and added the ability to view fire activity both in the unit and monitor for unwanted spots fire outside the unit through the smoke layer via the infrared camera. While many of these capabilities were being test on prescribed fires, it was apparent they would also have significant benefits on wildfire events.
In the Spring of 2021, the Chippewa utilized UAS for ignition for the first time on three Goose Lake RX units near Longville with the assistance of a platform and pilots from the Columbine Wildland Fire Module from Colorado. This project was identified to test out the viability of UAS for prescribed burning in northern Minnesota fuel types. The area included multiple different stand types, a variety of prior harvest scenarios, and varied terrain. The utilization of the UAS platform as the primary ignition method allowed all three units to be completed in one day instead of three days as would have previously been the case. The completion of all three units resulted in the single largest wooded upland prescribed burn unit on the forest in a single day.
Seeing the value of the UAS platform to the future of the forest RX program and the potential benefits for the suppression program, while understanding the limited availability of the tool, staff decided to focus efforts to developing an inhouse UAS program. It was around this same time that the Regional Office began to develop the R9 UAS program officially. In the Summer of 2022, the forest was able to have two new pilots, Adam Cook and Mike McDaniel, prioritized into the newly developed Fire pilot training program. Unfortunately, some delays with UAS platform availability and vendor changes delayed the initial pilot training over a year until the Fall of 2023. Adam and Mike successfully completed the four weeks of online and classroom training in Wisconsin, Florida, and Arizona. Following these trainings both became qualified to fly UAS missions on non-incident projects and trainees for incidents. This included missions such as reconnaissance flights for timber sales, engineering, recreation sites, special use inspections, and public relations.
In the early Spring of 2024, R9 acquired two new Alta X UAS aircraft. The Chippewa National Forest was chosen to house one of the two making it one of the only three host forests to have the Alta X UAS platform in the region currently. The Alta X platform is the current standard agency platform for both UAS recon and UAS ignition operations. The Alta X is a four prop, 7.5’ diameter aircraft capable of haul up to 30 lbs. For recon and ignition missions the platform carries a camera that provides real time visual light and infrared light imagery and a plastic sphere dispensing (psd) hopper capable of carrying and igniting up to 350 psd devices per flight.
Following the classroom training Adam and Mike began the trainee process to fly on incidents during the Spring of 2024 in Missouri and Minnesota. Some of this training time included working with the Great Lakes Wildland Fire Module from Michigan on the Chippewa National Forest, utilizing UAS ignitions again locally on the Tanglewood, Moss Lake, and Cutfoot Sioux RX units. Following the eastern Spring RX season Adam and Mike traveled out west throughout the summer to a variety of RX and wildfire events in WY, OR, & WA.
In October 2024, Adam Cook’s task book for UASP (incident UAS pilot) was signed off. Within a few days of being qualified as a UAS pilot, Adam and Mike flew the first fully in house UAS missions (pilots, aircraft, and support equipment) on both an active Chippewa wildfire (Cuba Fire) and an active Chippewa prescribed fire (Sunken Lake) to perform aerial recon/patrol work. This day marked a milestone many years in the making for the Fire program and demonstrated the benefits of all the effort and investment that many people committed to reduce risk for other employees.
Looking forward, Adam was recently accepted into the national Aerial Ignition (AI) academy in Florida. Adam is one of only two pilots from R9 to attend the academy in the Spring of 2025. Mike continues to pursue the few remaining tasks he needs to become a UASP. Tyler Lange was recently accepted into the new pilot training program and completed the first two weeks of the training. Additional Fire staff are on the waiting list for pilot training opportunities. In the coming months, the Minnesota National Forests will be receiving a second Alta X aircraft. The Forest is also currently working with the RO to purchase a new recon only Astro UAS aircraft in the Spring of 2025. The Astro platform is a smaller aircraft that will primarily be utilized for wildfire suppression and monitoring operations.
With the growing availability of both multiple pilots and aircraft on forest and beyond, UAS is also a tool available to many other programs beyond Fire Management. Region 9 currently has a SharePoint site ( R9 UAS Program - Home ) set up for the UAS program which includes a link to the Eastern Region NRM UAS Request Form. Project managers can request UAS mission support for non-incident projects by submitting this form. While this is the formal process to reach out for assistance in R9, the local Chippewa pilots are also available to assist in advance to discuss specific potential missions. It is recommended staff reach out at least two weeks in advance of any potential UAS support needs.