Research and Industry
As a leading practitioner in the environmental stewardship industry, Firetail Environments and Director, Dan Pettingill, have been engaged and invited to participate in a number of conferences, forums, lecture series’ and research projects for organisations and events such as Landcare Australia, Landcare Victoria Inc. Forum, Victorian Greenhouse Alliances, Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar and Victorian Weed Conference, Australasian Weed Conference 2024 and other events.
Reach for the Sky: Drone-Powered Approach to Combat Weed Control
Australasian Weeds Conference, Brisbane 2024
Published: Castlemaine Mail, August 23, 2024 as “Reach for the sky: drone-powered approach to combat weed control”
Local Castlemaine business owner Dan Pettingill is gearing up for a significant opportunity to showcase the expertise of his company, Firetail Environments, at the upcoming Australasian Weeds Conference in Brisbane, scheduled for Late August.
Pettingill will present on the topic of “Utilising Drones in Weed Surveillance and Control” exploring the growing role of drone technology in landscape management and agriculture.
As drone capabilities continue to expand across various industries, Pettingill’s presentation will highlight how these technologies are revolutionising data collection, analysis, and treatment processes. Firetail Environments emphasises the critical role drones play in analysing plant health, integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and improving treatment efficiencies such as reduction of chemicals, precision based plant surveillance and more efficient on ground outcomes.
“The integration of drones into landscape management workflows offers significant benefits,” Pettingill notes. “From enhanced data collection to more effective treatment deployment, drones are transforming how we manage and restore landscapes.”
Pettingill will discuss various drone payloads designed for specific data collection needs, which lead to more precise monitoring and improved decision-making. He will also explore integrating drones into existing management systems, providing valuable insights on leveraging UAV technology for better environmental outcomes.
This presentation not only highlights Pettingill’s commitment to advancing landscape management practices but also underscores the growing influence of drone specialists in the field and the crucial expertise they bring.
“As budgets tighten and expectations rise across landscape management, ecology, agriculture, carbon and biodiversity, finding more effective solutions is critical to ensure more resource flow to on ground outcomes,” Pettingill says. “Drones and the knowledge behind them offer significant benefits, allowing for better resource allocation and on-ground results.”
“We are finding that our drone fleet, and the skills that sit behind the outcomes we deliver, are providing significant benefit to land managers from environmental and ecological surveys to our aerial treatment solutions.”
Pettingill’s upcoming presentation at the conference reflects the innovative spirit and expertise emerging from the region and providing influence on a national stage.
Utilising drones in weed surveillance, treatment and management
Australasian Australian Association of Bush Regenerators (AABR), National Forum, Melbourne 2024
Presented as part of Australian Association of Bush Regenerators, AABR National Forum – The Rs of Restoration, March 2024
The adoption of drone technology is increasing across industries providing advancements and efficiencies in data collection, analysis and on-ground outcomes. This technology provides significant opportunity in the landscape management sector to collect data, utilise multispectral and GIS workflows and deploy on ground outcomes more efficiently whether deploying drones or traditional boots-on-the-ground workforce.
This talk dives into how drones can be deployed as a data collection and decision-making tool to provide better outcomes for the industry and in restoring landscapes.
Danny is the Director of Firetail Environments, specialising in environment and sustainable agriculture & carbon projects, and drone workflow and deployment services. Firetail works in the niche between agriculture and conservation to promote management for biodiversity and production through sustainable environmental management techniques.
Danny’s passion is in collaboration and design, having made a career as a designer, artist, engineer and educator at the forefront of innovative practice, and he brings this energy into landscape development, restoration and sustainable farming projects. He is the former Manager – Operations and Projects with Loddon Plains Landcare Network, has recently finished his term as a Director of Landcare Victoria Inc. and currently sits on the City of Greater Bendigo Farming and Agribusiness Advisory Committee.
Community-Led Carbon and Collaboration
Carbon, Community & Collaboration has been developed around developing community based landscape outcomes that provide benefits to biodiversity, land stewardship enterprises and large scale landscape restoration.
The model investigates how we can better engage communities and land stewards locally to build landscape-scale resilience, prioritise community led biodiversity outcomes and create carbon outcomes at a local scale that provide benefit to community, corporate and landscape outcomes by identifying community priorities and bringing together enterprise, philanthropic and corporate investment and local landscape management groups to develop sustainable environmental goods and service opportunities.
National Landcare Conference: On-Farm Value of Biodiversity Through Sustainable Agriculture Practices
Landcare Australia webinar series: How Landcare organisations and projects have been responding to challenges
Wimmera Biodiversity Seminar: Designing Resilient and Adaptive Landscapes
Main FM Radio Interview, Dig It Program: Firetail Environments
Victoria State Government Our Catchment Our Communities Leadership in Innovation program
The OCOC Leadership program provided opportunities to undertake opportunities for development and leadership in land and catchment management that would have otherwise taken significantly more time to develop.
The investment provided an opportunity to curate a highly specialised set of training and skills for a greater vision to take out into the community and create leading concepts for the betterment of landscape function, catchment health and decision-making in land management and project design.
This project research culminated in the development of landscape resilience strategies and models that could be taken on-ground and be adopted in the context of landscape scale project design and development in land sector opportunities such as environmental goods and service markets, community led biodiversity and restoration investment and other identified opportunties.
A key outcome of this work was Danny’s development of resilience and adaptation models and it’s supplementary Reading Landscapes Plant Selection Matrix, providing a resource for landscape design work according to environmental condition and enterprise opportunity.
