Feasibility Study of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery for Mapping Roadside Milkweeds and Nectaring Plants for the Monarch Butterfly (NDOT 564-22-803)

The monarch butterfly has been gaining national attention as population declines from 75-85% have been documented across its range. It is a “candidate” species for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. In response, the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) needs to conduct regular surveys of the native flowering plants the monarch butterfly depends on. Traditional survey methods require biologists to walk sites to document plants. However, this method is labor intensive and must be completed during the limited growing season in Nevada. One method that has shown promising results is the use of drones. Drones use high resolution cameras to capture images of large sections of the landscape in a very short time. This provides an opportunity to cover significantly more ground than foot surveys during the short growing season. Additionally, drone imagery allows for postponed analysis. This would allow multiple drone surveys to occur at the appropriate flowering times without regard for the availability of a biologist. Although drones have been used in various survey techniques, they have not been used for identification and counting of milkweeds or other flowering plants, especially as they relate to monarch butterflies or other pollinator species. This research focuses on four major objectives: (1) Complete a literature review on using drones to map both milkweeds and nectaring plants. (2) Potential study areas will be determined from a combination of sources including existing milkweed habitat models, records from iNaturalist, the Western Monarch and Milkweed Mapper, and other associated natural history databases and local field knowledge. (3) Conduct a full factorial experiment to cross 3 levels of flight altitude with 3 levels of side overlap and 3 dates (early, middle, and late growing season, ~June, July, and August) in order to determine optimal settings for efficient data collection. (4) Using drone imagery to develop a set of vegetation maps for each study site to quantify milkweed cover, floral density, and other vegetation and cover types.

    Language

    • English

    Project

    • Status: Active
    • Funding: $290,449.00
    • Contract Numbers:

      564-22-803

    • Sponsor Organizations:

      Nevada Department of Transportation

      1263 South Stewart Street
      Carson City, NV  United States  89712

      Federal Highway Administration

      1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
      Washington, DC  United States  20590
    • Managing Organizations:

      Nevada DOT Research

      1263 South Stewart St
      Carson City, Nevada  United States  89712
    • Project Managers:

      Simpson, Nova

      Ison, Mitch

    • Performing Organizations:

      University of Nevada, Reno

      1664 N. Virginia Street
      Reno, Nevada  United States  89557
    • Principal Investigators:

      Pringle, Elizabeth

      Xu, Hao

    • Start Date: 20221128
    • Expected Completion Date: 20250831
    • Actual Completion Date: 0

    Subject/Index Terms

    Filing Info

    • Accession Number: 01944712
    • Record Type: Research project
    • Source Agency: Nevada Department of Transportation
    • Contract Numbers: 564-22-803
    • Files: RIP, STATEDOT
    • Created Date: Jan 31 2025 4:35PM