Nicknamed the Pine Tree State, Maine is the northernmost state in the northeastern United States of America.  It is perhaps best known for it’s incredible seafood, especially lobster.  Maine harvests 90% of the country’s lobster supply.  After lobster, what people think of when they hear mention of Maine is its cold temperatures, jagged coastlines, and deep inland forest.  Maine is home to 32,000 miles of rivers and streams,  6,000 lakes and ponds, and 542,629 acres of state and national parks.  Maine’s Arcadia National Park first opened in 1916 and is now one of the most popular parks in the country with over 2 million visitors a year.  The maintenance of all of these natural resources is huge undertaking for the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands and the Maine Forest Service.  Luckily the state was awarded a grant recently that will allow them to purchase some drones to help in this endeavor.  

The Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund (MOHF) awarded the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) $10,792 to go into this new drone program.  The funds will be used to purchase about 20 drones and their accompanying software.  The funds will also go towards an intensive training program to make sure that everyone involved in the program is fully compliant in FAA regulations and capable of operating the drones.  Commissioner Amanda Beal of the DACF said of this acquisition, “This technology can be used by our department staff in a number of ways to really help reduce costs, save time and improve the accuracy of our work.”  

The DACF plans on using the drones to gather maps and visual data of their vast forests and parks.  This data will help them monitor changes in the health and composition of the forests from natural disasters, logging, pests, and plant diseases.  The drones will also be used to help monitor conservation methods, water quality, and how climate changes cause long term changes in ecological reserve wetlands.  With parks like Arcadia covering 47,000 acres of land and the estimated 17.6 million acres of forests, 89% of the state’s land, these drones will go a long way in helping DACF employees preform their jobs.  Director Andy Cutko of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands said, “Drones have great potential to increase our efficiency of monitoring forests, wetlands, and waters, and they can also be a really useful tool for highlighting Maine’s outstanding recreational resources.  We’re thrilled to have MOHF support to help us adapt to this emerging technology.”

The drones will not only be used for the monitoring of the states forests and parks, but for promotional purposes as well.  Drones are equipped with cameras that can take stunning HD photos and videos.  The resulting images are often far superior to handheld cameras.  “We have incredible resources here in our state parks and public lands,” Director Beal said. “Being able to make some videos and show people what we have to offer if they come to visit these beautiful places — I think that it will really help bring attention to all of these resources that we have here for everyone to use.”  The hope is to further increase tourism which will bring more money into the state. 

The grant from MOHF for drones is not the first time drones have been used in Maine in an official capacity.  For the last two years the Maine Forest Service has been operating 5 drones to locate invasive pests like the Emerald Ash Borers and keep fires under control.  Regional Forest Ranger Jeff Currier explained that with Maine’s dense forest landscapes finding the epicenter of a wildfire can be particularly difficult as you are often left trying to track a trail of smoke rather than flames.  “Every fire starts small, so we want to kill them quick,” Currier said. “It’s just incredible how much time the drone saves. How much energy it saves. How much smarter we can be. It’s a really great tool. And this is just the beginning.  With a drone and georeferencing of the photos and the video I can take a GPS point and say, ‘OK, ranger, plug these coordinates in and walk directly to it.’”  With this new grant the Forest Service will increase their drone numbers from 5 to 15, a number that will greatly enhances the department’s abilities to efficiently and safely do their jobs.

While these drones will be used by state officials in state parks, the DACF wants to remind the public that they are not included in the participation of this program.  Like all state and national parks in the U.S. the use of drones are strictly prohibited by the public for personal of commercial purposes.  Unless granted special permission by the local government and the FAA, only those employed and trained by the DACF will be permitted to use drones in these otherwise restricted areas.  With that being said Ranger Currier only sees this program growing in the future.  He said, “Ten years from now, I believe every ranger will have a drone.  We’ll look back and it’ll be like when we didn’t have GPS. We’re going to look back at the days we didn’t have drones and say, ‘Wow. Those were the dark ages.’”