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Thermal Drones for deer surveys

JNRBRONC

JNRBRONC

Well-Known Member
There was mention of thermal drones on here in a couple of different threads, but so as to not hijack them, decided to post this on its own.

There was an article in the local paper about people in Iowa City complaining about deer damage to ornamentals in their yards. Well, duh, IC makes it almost impossible for a bowhunter, which I think is by design so that they can hire White Buffalo to sharpshoot.

White Buffalo was approached to do a survey of deer numbers in IC. The part that caught my eye was when they proposed to do it with thermal drones at night but then cautioned that a recently vacated deer bed will "glow hot" on the drone hours after it had been vacated. So their numbers might be a little high, and over estimate....

Found this interesting, obviously interesting enough to share. It appears they need to work on temperature corrected images (software? filters?) to sort out beds from actual critters. I have no experience with drones, normal or thermal. Need to get the drone I got as a gift a year (or so) ago out of the box. :oops:
 
Why would they feel the need to fly at night? As I understand it, these things do not spook bedded deer. If so, fly them during the day...on straight time, not on OT and/or DT at night. Hey...do you think White Buffalo knows this and is proposing the most costly "solution" to the numpties on the IC Council? :)
 
Wait a minute…. We have places & people in iowa PAYING Sharpshooters to shoot deer??!?!?!?!? In a state with access issues galore & infinitely more people wanting to shoot deer than there are places to hunt!!!!! U can’t be serious?!? I’ve never heard of “white buffalo”.
Who would make these decisions? Even normal democrats or most group of R’s wouldn’t. This almost has to be some far leftist or irrational group of folks …. Generally the type that hate hunting. But I’m stumped on hiring sharp shooters. & then - trusting them with drones when their biz is to shoot deer- no way. This smells really off. I don’t have the facts of course & a lot of assumptions but u got some lunatics making decisions over there.
 
Sligh1 said:
Wait a minute…. We have places & people in iowa PAYING Sharpshooters to shoot deer??!?!?!?!? In a state with access issues galore & infinitely more people wanting to shoot deer than there are places to hunt!!!!! U can’t be serious?!? I’ve never heard of “white buffalo”.
Who would make these decisions? Even normal democrats or most group of R’s wouldn’t. This almost has to be some far leftist or irrational group of folks …. Generally the type that hate hunting. But I’m stumped on hiring sharp shooters. & then - trusting them with drones when their biz is to shoot deer- no way. This smells really off. I don’t have the facts of course & a lot of assumptions but u got some lunatics making decisions over there.
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Welcome to Iowa City, for real, they do, and at least some of the years that they have done this have been VERY expensive. No amount of logic/common sense told to the IC Council seems to get through. They are paying THOUSANDS of dollars that someone do for free.
 
Daver said:
Welcome to Iowa City, for real, they do, and at least some of the years that they have done this have been VERY expensive. No amount of logic/common sense told to the IC Council seems to get through. They are paying THOUSANDS of dollars that someone do for free.
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This needs a lot more public light on it. One ounce of public debate & a “welcome” sign to hunters …. Problem solved, a fortune saved & countless happy hunters. I never knew iowa had this stupidity around. I knew it happened in IL & MN …. Total insanity that needs to be highlighted, exposed & reformed!!!
 
Sligh1 said:
This needs a lot more public light on it. One ounce of public debate & a “welcome” sign to hunters …. Problem solved, a fortune saved & countless happy hunters. I never knew iowa had this stupidity around. I knew it happened in IL & MN …. Total insanity that needs to be highlighted, exposed & reformed!!!
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Just a FYI...this practice goes back 15 to 20+ years ago, or so. I remember there being public outcry about it way back in the day, but then I really haven't heard much about White Buffalo for several years. I truly would not be surprised if you counted all of the years that IC has brought White Buffalo in to sharp shoot that they may have spent over a million dollars. (Note - I am not technically a resident of Iowa City, although part of my property boundary touches the city limits, so I don't keep up with all of the finer details related to IC.)
 
If I remember correctly, the rationale was that “paid professionals” were a safer solution. I think it’s more than just IC also but I could be wrong. It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything.
 
Here’s a post from 5 yrs ago. I just skimmed through but it looks like bow hunting is cruel is the jist of it. For 120k, I’m sure they could get plenty of volunteers. I don’t know if it was revised but White Buffalo was guessing 10k deer which made for a good sales pitch I’m assuming.

iowawhitetail.com

Iowa city deer hunt.

This just gets better and better. https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Iowa-City-council-members-feel-trapped-with-potential-deer-management-plan-507068221.html
iowawhitetail.com iowawhitetail.com
 
Just recently had my farm flown and do seem to recall a recent bed leaving enough of a heat signature to appear but the drone operator just switches to the camera to see that it’s not an actual deer so no reason it should be inaccurate if done properly
 
Daver said:
Welcome to Iowa City, for real, they do, and at least some of the years that they have done this have been VERY expensive. No amount of logic/common sense told to the IC Council seems to get through. They are paying THOUSANDS of dollars that someone do for free.
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Well IC is a blue city!
 
It is crazy in IC. The DNR finally stepped in and said you can't use White Buffalo again until you try urban bow hunting. I'm the chair of the Polk County Deer Task Force so was involved a bit in getting it rolling as the Polk County program is a great success. In my work with the administrator of the IC program, I kept pointing out changes needed to make it actually work. They told me those could not be made due to the parameters they were given. Once I realized the council had zero desire to see the bow hunt work, I stepped out. They were setting it up to fail so they could go back to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to WB so their guys could shoot deer at night over big corn piles. Sickening.
 
seven twenty said:
Here’s a post from 5 yrs ago. I just skimmed through but it looks like bow hunting is cruel is the jist of it. For 120k, I’m sure they could get plenty of volunteers. I don’t know if it was revised but White Buffalo was guessing 10k deer which made for a good sales pitch I’m assuming.

iowawhitetail.com

Iowa city deer hunt.

This just gets better and better. https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Iowa-City-council-members-feel-trapped-with-potential-deer-management-plan-507068221.html
iowawhitetail.com iowawhitetail.com
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Some things never change..... :(
 
Rjack said:
It is crazy in IC. The DNR finally stepped in and said you can't use White Buffalo again until you try urban bow hunting. I'm the chair of the Polk County Deer Task Force so was involved a bit in getting it rolling as the Polk County program is a great success. In my work with the administrator of the IC program, I kept pointing out changes needed to make it actually work. They told me those could not be made due to the parameters they were given. Once I realized the council had zero desire to see the bow hunt work, I stepped out. They were setting it up to fail so they could go back to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to WB so their guys could shoot deer at night over big corn piles. Sickening.
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The City Council is afraid that "someone (knuckle draggers) might take pleasure out of killing a deer". They create so many restrictions on bowhunting that is almost impossible to find a place to hunt. Then, White Buffalo can sharp shoot them in the head over corn piles with HP rifles in the middle of the night so that City Council's "hands stay clean".
 
This was going on back in the day when Wille Suchy was alive! Him and the DNR tried to help those snowflakes but they funnily walked away and basically said good luck with your deer problems.
 
Ishi said:
This was going on back in the day when Wille Suchy was alive! Him and the DNR tried to help those snowflakes but they finally walked away and basically said good luck with your deer problems.
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Why actually fix a problem when you can kick the can down the road? :rolleyes: Bureaucracy lives on since emotions rather than common sense rule the day. Sound familiar?
 
JNRBRONC said:
Why actually fix a problem when you can kick the can down the road? :rolleyes: Bureaucracy lives on since emotions rather than common sense rule the day. Sound familiar?
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For sure! They are one of the three blue cities in the state the last election. The shoe fits them well..
 
seven twenty said:
Get that contract and I’m sure you’d have plenty of volunteer help. At 120k, we could all get new equipment and still have change for a beer afterwards.
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White Buffalo claims liability insurance isn’t cheap, and I would guess that to be true.


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