Federal Bills Would Expand Drone Use for Wildfires

The House and Senate have included new language in their Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bills that would encourage the agency to declare plans to expand the use of drones to fight wildfires.

The language in the House bill would have the FAA allow commercial drone use with “beyond visual line of sight operations,” and also direct the FAA to collaborate with the Forest Service to designate public areas for drones to be used to fight wildfires without an operator being in the visual line of sight.

“Representing the Western district, I’ve learned from wildland firefighters and local governments firsthand about the need to better coordinate all aerial aspects of wildfire detection, prevention and suppression,” said Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., in an interview with CQ Roll Call. “They have told me that the evolving technology ofdrones and other unmanned systems has already shown promise in firefighting, which is why I pushed language in this year’s FAA legislation to make it easier for them to operate safely and more effectively.”

The drone industry has faced a number of hurdles that have hampered their use, and aeronautical experts are urging the federal government to step in and fix those, including rules that require operators to have their drones within their sight at all times.

Many states already use drones to capture thermal images of the landscape and administer prescribed burns, but the programs are relatively new and vary in size. The state and local programs, however, are clear about what’s needed to scale up drone operations for wildland fires, including the line-of-sight rules, which limit wildland firefighters’ ability to use drones, thereby doing more harm than good.