Two Forest Service aerial drones are being transferred to the agency’s firefighting wing, where an internal group will determine whether and how to deploy them, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has reported.
It said that the group – a 14-member advisory committee – will not operate with a charter requiring it to consider privacy implications of using the drones, and will not open its deliberations to the public.
Based on data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, PEER said the Forest Service spent about $100,000 on two drones in 2007 for photoreconnaissance of pot growing operations, but without trained pilots and FAA clearance they never got of the ground.
Drones have been used in for firefighting in the past (most recently a military surveillance drone was used to help fight a large fire in Yosemite National Park) and along with weather and agriculture, these kinds of uses provide test cases for a widening deployment in the national airspace.The FAA is currently developing a framework to integrate civilian drones into the nation’s airspace that will help an industry built up during wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, find customers. Customers will be easy to find (with state and local law enforcement entities being an obvious example) but grappling with privacy and other issues remains at least as tricky as how to operate drones safely.
http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/12/03/forest-service-drones-stuck-in-hangar-for-7-years-may-take-off/