What’s that up in the sky? A Bird? A Plane? Or both? In a recent article written by NPR, it reveals the use of foam drones to monitor deforestation. Foam drones are now being offered as a solution to put a stop to clear-cut forests and illegal logging in the Amazon. Every year illegal logging and clear-cutting in the Peruvian Amazon destroys thousands of acres of rain forest. The deforestation in remote parts of the jungle is hard to detect. With the ability to fly over and watch/regulate the forest, the drones provide the knowledge of what is being targeted, cut, and taken.

These drones aren’t quite like the gift that has become so popular on a Christmas list. The drones being used are a $5,000 modified machine with advanced autopilot functions. Each drone is equipped with a 3-foot wingspan and weighs less than 5 pounds.  With a 10 mile radius on autopilot it offers an over seeing eye on forest activity, where it is difficult to roam the forest on foot and blindly looking for offenders.

Carlos Castaneda is the coordinator of the Amazon Basin Conservation Association. He plans to use the small drones to monitor the private Los Amigos conservation area in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. The conservancy is about a third of the size of Rhode Island. He has only five rangers to monitor the 550- square-mile reserve. These drones will provide a way to investigate deforestation. “We can go straight to the point, not just walking everywhere trying to find it in the forest.” –Carlos Castaneda.

With drones starting to function as a forest protection solution we are hopeful that deforestation will become more regulated and will provide a solution to stop timber tycoons. Trees are important, each one tells a story and should be used, when fallen naturally, to add to its’ story. Bedell vows to never knowingly use wood from clear-cut tress and instead, uses wood from singularly harvested, reclaimed or salvaged trees. We are Bedell and we speak for the trees.