Between the fire and
the first storm.
Post-fire emergency stabilisation, rangeland restoration and agricultural application across the American West, flown under FAA Part 137, with GPS coverage records that prove what was treated.
A burn does not wait
for a purchase order.
After a fire, the soil that holds a watershed together is gone and the clock is running. What happens on those slopes before the first serious autumn storm decides whether the ground stays put or ends up in the creek, the reservoir and somebody's town.
Aerial seeding is the only method that covers a whole burn at once. No roads, no ground disturbance on unstable soil, no waiting for access to be rebuilt. In steep country it is frequently the only method at all.
The flying is straightforward in principle and unforgiving in practice: consistent swath, consistent rate, consistent overlap, over terrain that is anything but consistent, in the short calm hours of an autumn day.
- FAA Part 137 agricultural aircraft operations
- Bucket and spreader configurations
- Calibrated against your prescription, not a table
- GPS-logged coverage you can hand to a funding source
Four kinds of treatment,
one application discipline.
Post-fire emergency stabilisation
The window between the fire going out and the first serious storm is short, and it decides whether a watershed holds or moves. Seeding is usually the fastest thing that can be done across a whole burn.
- BAER team support and transport
- Burned-area broadcast seeding
- Priority-slope targeting
- Repeat passes where prescription requires
Rangeland & habitat restoration
Reseeding after fire, treatment or conversion, at a scale and on ground where a drill is not going to happen.
- Native and adapted seed mixes
- Sagebrush and grass restoration
- Post-treatment reseeding
- Habitat improvement projects
Mulch, fertiliser & amendment
Where seed alone will not hold, the follow-up material has to go on the same ground, evenly, quickly, in the same window.
- Straw and wood-strand mulch support
- Fertiliser and soil amendment
- Hydro-mulch support operations
- Erosion-control material placement
Cover crops & agricultural work
Part 137 agricultural aircraft operations across fields, orchards and ground where wheels do more harm than good.
- Cover-crop seeding
- Wet-ground and standing-crop application
- Field-edge and awkward-parcel work
The aircraft is rarely
the limiting factor.
PrescriptionBefore the season
Seed mix, rate per acre, treatment boundary and priority areas, from your BAER team, agronomist or land manager. The prescription decides swath width, altitude, speed and how many loads a day looks like.
Ground logisticsThe real constraint
Seed delivered, staged and loaded near the unit. On a big burn, the flying is rarely the limiting factor; the loading site, the truck rotation and the road in usually are.
Load site setupDay one
A safe, level, dust-manageable loading area within a short cycle of the treatment unit, with room for trucks, the loader and a helicopter that will be arriving every few minutes.
CalibrationFirst loads
Spread pattern and rate checked against the prescription and adjusted for the material. Seed mixes behave differently, and the ones with fluffy species behave worst.
ApplicationWeather window
Flown on planned lines with consistent swath overlap, GPS-tracked so coverage is provable rather than asserted. Wind decides the day, and in autumn the day is short.
Coverage recordOn completion
Track logs, acres treated, loads applied, rate achieved and any area that could not be flown and why. This is what your funding source will ask for.
What decides the schedule,
and who brings what.
What decides the schedule
- The first significant autumn storm
- Wind, the daily limiting factor
- Seed delivery and staging
- Truck and loader rotation
- Daylight, which is shortening fast
- Airspace and any active fire in the area
What you supply
- Prescription: mix, rate, boundary, priority
- Seed and material at the load site
- Loader and ground crew, or ask us to arrange
- Access and staging permissions
- Coverage and reporting requirements
What we supply
- FAA Part 137 agricultural operation
- Bucket or spreader configuration
- GPS guidance and track logging
- Calibration against your prescription
- Coverage record and treated-acre report
- Insurance certificates naming your entity
We were probably
flying it in August.
A lot of the ground we seed in October is ground we worked in fire season. The crew already knows the drainage, the wires, the wet spots and where the air goes bad in the afternoon.
That continuity is worth more than it sounds. A pilot who has flown the burn while it was burning does not need three days to learn the unit.
What BAER teams and land
managers ask.
Fast, and that is the point. But honestly, the aircraft is rarely the slow part. Seed procurement, prescription sign-off and getting material to a load site usually take longer than getting a helicopter there.
If you are on a BAER team and you can see the seeding coming, call us before the prescription is finalised. Five minutes about load sites and cycle times at that stage can save days later.
That comes from the prescription and the material, and it is verified by calibration on the first loads rather than assumed from a table. Fluffy native mixes, cleaned grass seed and granular amendments all spread differently.
Yes. Application is flown on planned lines with GPS track logging, so you get a coverage record showing what was actually flown, including gaps and the reason for them. Most funding sources now expect this.
No. Seed is normally procured by the agency or landowner, and specifying it is a specialist job we are not qualified for. We can advise on load-site logistics and what a realistic daily acreage looks like for a given mix and cycle.
Wind, mostly. Broadcast pattern degrades quickly in a breeze, and there is no point putting an expensive mix down where it will not land. Calm mornings do most of the season's work.
Send the prescription. We'll tell you what a day covers.
Post-fire and restoration work across the American West.
CALL DIRECT · 208-315-5769