Featured Missions
Flights that move the needle
From wildlife transports to watershed restoration campaigns, these are the missions where the aerial perspective is changing what is possible on the ground.
Featured Mission — Watersheds
Exposing Mine Risk to a Montana Watershed
The Bitterroot River winds through a picturesque valley in Western Montana, its meandering path carving a winding streambed across the landscapes and depositing rich soils that have served family farms for generations. The area’s beauty served as the backdrop for the Dutton Ranch in the TV series Yellowstone.
The Bitterroot River’s West Fork headwaters have been attracting attention long before the show, drawing fly-fishing enthusiasts from across the country and the world. Lately, those headwaters have been drawing a different kind of attention: government officials are considering a proposed rare earth mine in the Sheep Creek area, and developers are hoping to fast-track its approval.
Key Initiatives
Sustained campaigns, lasting outcomes
Some conservation work cannot be completed in a single flight. These are the multi-year efforts we keep showing up for, campaign after campaign, until the outcome is realized.
Wildlife
Bringing back California condors
California condors nearly vanished in the 1980s, down to 22 birds. Our flights help transport birds between breeding facilities and release sites, and track radio-tagged condors to protect a population still fighting its way back.
Explore Wildlife
Watersheds
Keeping watch over a shrinking Colorado River
The river that supplies water to 40 million people and 11 National Parks is shrinking. Our recurring flight campaign keeps its story, and its science, in front of the people who decide its future.
Explore Watersheds
COASTLINEs
Revealing the Everglades under pressure
Monitoring habitat loss, water withdrawals, and runoff across the nation’s largest wetland, our flight campaigns are uniquely suited to reach this remote, roadless terrain.
Explore Coastlines
watersheds
Documenting salmon habitat and threats to it
Protect salmon and you protect forests, food, water, communities, and economies. LightHawk flies missions to advance wild salmon recovery, documenting dams that block salmon from their spawning grounds and the habitat recovery that follows when they’re removed.
Explore Watersheds
Every mission needs wings.
Explore the flight map to see where we’ve flown, or bring LightHawk a mission of your own.