Our Priorities
Why we fly
LightHawk flies for the landscapes, wildlife, and waters that define North America,
and for the people and communities who depend on them.
Where We Focus
Five priorities. One perspective.
LightHawk’s conservation team plans and coordinates every mission with partners and volunteer pilots, turning flights into real conservation results across five focus areas.
Landscapes
Using aviation to to protect ecologically important landscapes and reveal the changes shaping them.
Explore Landscapes
Watersheds
From water-quality monitoring to habitat restoration, using flight to protect the rivers and wetlands that keep ecosystems alive.
Explore Watersheds
Oceans & Coastlines
Taking flight to protect oceans, coastlines, and the rich biodiversity they sustain.
Explore Oceans & Coastlines
Wildlife
A lifeline for endangered species — from safe wildlife transport to aerial tracking and habitat connectivity.
Explore Wildlife
Climate
Leveraging the power of flight to document climate impacts, track change, and strengthen resilience.
Explore ClimateBEYOND A SINGLE FLIGHT
Sustained campaigns, cumulative impact.
Some conservation work requires more than a single flight. LightHawk commits to sustained conservation campaigns across the country, returning over multiple months, even years, as the work evolves and progress builds. These are a few of the long-term efforts where that commitment is taking shape.
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
Telling the Story of the Colorado River
The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people and is shrinking. LightHawk designs and flies recurring campaigns that put aviation to work documenting change, supporting science, raising awareness, and informing decisions across the Basin.
Explore Watersheds
Revealing the Everglades Under Pressure
Monitoring habitat loss, water withdrawals, and runoff across the nation’s largest wetland, LightHawk missions are uniquely suited to reach this remote, roadless terrain. From above, partners can better document change, guide restoration, and show decision-makers what is happening across the system.
Explore Climate
Safeguarding Salmon from Rivers to Sea
Protect salmon and you protect forests, rivers, oceans, communities, and economies. LightHawk flies missions to advance wild salmon recovery, documenting barriers to spawning grounds and the habitat recovery that follows when those barriers are removed. Their journey from headwaters to ocean connects entire ecosystems.
Explore CoastlinesDiscover how these priorities take shape across North America.
Explore the Flight Map →
See conservation from a new angle.
Every flight starts with a conservation goal. See the missions behind the landscapes, waters, wildlife, and coastlines we fly to protect.
Have a project in mind? Let’s talk.