Category: Pilot View
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Pilot View: California Condors Return to Northern California
The reintroduction of California condors to parts of Northern California is an interesting story. It’s one that deserves to be told but would not be complete without seeing the land as a condor sees it – from the air. The Yurok Tribe (a LightHawk conservation partner) is one of many indigenous cultures that view the…
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Pilot View: Flying Over a Proposed Data Center in Montana
Taking off from his home airport in Bozeman, Montana, LightHawk Northern Rockies Program Manager and Volunteer Pilot Chris Boyer pointed his plane east toward the small rural community of Broadview. With the stiff tailwind, the flight took just over an hour. Chris was flying over Broadview to collect imagery of the location of a proposed…
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Pilot View: Preserving Pacific Flyway Habitat for Sandhill Cranes
There’s one thing for certain when you take to the skies – once you leave the ground, you’ll eventually need to land. That’s not just true for our volunteer pilots. It’s also true for our feathered friends. For Sandhill Cranes flying through Central California, agricultural fields are a vital part of their migratory journey. Photographer…
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Pilot View: Flying West with Endangered Masked Bobwhite Quail
When first described by scientists, the masked bobwhite quail thrived across the Southwestern United States and into Central Mexico. By the turn of the century, however, the population began to decline. And by the late 1940s, the birds were believed to be extinct. That changed in 1964, when an Arizona taxidermist followed reports of quail…
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Pilot View: Two Days. Hundreds of Miles. Flying the Colorado River.
The Colorado River is a majestic and essential waterway, flowing from the mountains of Colorado through several western states and into Mexico. Once, it reached the Pacific Ocean; today, the water rarely makes it that far. Water use along the Colorado is a complicated and often controversial topic, especially as millions of people, businesses, and…