Bonneville County launches new drone to tackle invasive species

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Bonneville County now has a new tool to combat invasive species and noxious weeds in the area. The county recently purchased a new drone specifically for use by noxious weed control.

The new drone can carry up to two gallons of chemicals, which are then used to spray invasive species in areas workers can't reach safely.

"This does the work for you," the drone's operator Jud Elkington said. "And so it's a huge safety aspect."

"We're getting to areas that we've never been able to get to just because of height restrictions. Cliff faces...places that are too steep that we could normally that we couldn't walk to."

While some counties use planes or even helicopters to tackle aerial spraying for invasive species, Elkington tells us the drone is better designed for the small areas they spray and more cost effective.

"There's a place for helicopters, for airplanes, and there's a place for drones," Elkington said. "A lot of the areas we go to, we're not looking at spraying hundreds or thousands of acres. Sometimes it's, you know, an acre or two acre hillside and that we can go and we can go to on any day."

"We don't have to call up a pilot. Now, there is licensing that we have to have to fly this and to spray, but the requirements are substantially lower than what it would take to fly a helicopter in an airplane."