Colorado wildlife officials have a new drone with a 13-gallon herbicide tank and a companion mapping drone for precision strikes against invasive weeds in remote northeastern spots, all meant to promote native plant regrowth and help wild turkeys, pheasants, deer and shorebirds find food and cover.
The spray drone should start zapping hard-to-reach spots in state wildlife areas from Morgan County through Yuma County in spring 2027, with the $65,000 craft and supporting equipment funded by a combination of public and nonprofit wildlife sources. Precision spraying is meant to cut back on the cost and potential environmental damage of helicopter spraying with a wider pattern, and can target individual weed patches under trees or inside wetlands.
The drone design “gives managers access to habitat they simply could not manage before,” according to the National Wild Turkey Federation, a South Carolina-based nonprofit with Colorado field personnel that awarded a grant for the state’s drone that it calls a “great leap forward.”
“Diverse, native species create quality habitat, and that’s what we’re trying to restore with this new technology,” said the turkey federation’s district biologist, David Nikonow, in an interview. To be precise with chemical herbicides in the past, a primary technique was sending workers out on foot or ATVs with backpack sprayers.
Not only are the drones much more precise than other techniques, their duties can double during plant and wildlife survey counts. Thermal imaging cameras on drones, for example, can detect wild turkeys roosting in trees at night, Nikonow said.
The precision GPS mapping gives the drone’s sprayer “centimeter accuracy,” while the mobility allows treatment of up to 50 acres an hour, across thousands of acres of Colorado state wildlife areas. The GPS mapping also helps the drone survey and re-treat the same spots year after year if necessary to clear the way for native species growth.
Invasive plants like leafy spurge and Canadian thistle crowd out native Western plants that offer better cover and food to turkeys and dozens of other birds and animals, wildlife officials say. Invasive cattails take over important wetlands and ponds.
With the invaders pushed back, there’s room for native wildlife cover species like Gambel oak, serviceberry and big bluestem, among others, to grow back.
Innovators are tinkering with drone design and power to add land management functions and lower the price range for public agencies, Nikonow said.
“Drone technology is always advancing and becoming more affordable,” he said.