Preview

image preview

Description

Drone laws and regulations in the United States are up the air, much like the technology they're trying to govern. More difficult yet is that each year more drones are impeding wild land firefighting efforts, and the laws and regulations surrounding drone use near wildfires, and the punitive measures in place to prevent such actions, are either ineffective or lacking altogether. My article addresses the current federal and state laws surrounding drone regulation and how the current legal regime does little in the way of preventing drone incursions into wildfire suppression operations. Each time a drone interferes with a wildfire suppression effort, an incredible toll is taken: aerial firefighting teams must be grounded, fire can spread quickly and without warning, there an increased risk of loss of property and natural resources, and information recognizance on fire activity is halted. The time is ripe to take a more active approach and formulation of new laws relating to drone use, and these changes need to happen before a drone incursion has an extreme, detrimental, and irreversible effect.

 
COinS