Drone thermal mosaic from the first night of the Interstate 5 fire, flown at 3:45 am on August 2, 2026, at 32 centimeter pixels: grey ground, pale winding roads and houses beside the interstate, with hundreds of hot spots glowing orange and yellow.

Thermal mosaic, 32 cm pixels Interstate 5 fire, milepost 57, 3:45 am August 2, 2026

UAS Wildland Fire Collaborative
Recognized 501(c)(3) public charity

Less heat between firefighters and the line.

A standardized pipeline for UAS wildland fire data. A pilot uploads a night's thermal data, then approves the finished map set before it goes live to the incident.

One system for every wildland fire drone pilot: state, federal or private, on any incident.

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A stump hole still burning beside a road inside the East Evans Creek fire, July 28, 2026.

Why it matters

Crews are walking into heat that pilots in the air could already see.

Drone pilots fly thermal cameras over wildfires night after night. The data exists. The hard part is getting it processed, standardized and in front of crews before they are committed.

When that data sits in a proprietary format, stalls in someone's email, or arrives in a shape the incident team cannot open, ground crews work from yesterday's picture. Hot spots get missed. Exposure is the cost.

We are pilots too. We built the Collaborative so the data pilots already collect reaches crews in time to matter.

How a map is made

From a thermal mosaic to a map a crew can use, layer by layer

One night's flight over the Interstate 5 fire, milepost 57: the stitched thermal mosaic first, then each layer of the delivered map set, in the symbols every sheet uses.

Thermal mosaic of the Interstate 5 fire, milepost 57: burned ground in shades of grey with bright white hot spots, clipped to the fire's outline on a dark background. — Interstate 5, milepost 57, flown at 3:45 am on August 2, 2026, and clipped to the fire. Every heat source on the delivered map is drawn; none is moved or left out.

The thermal mosaic Hundreds of thermal frames from one night's flight, stitched into one thermal image of the ground. The whiter the ground, the warmer it reads.
IR heat perimeter The outer edge of the heat, as the pilot mapped it, drawn in pink because a drone flew it.
Intense and scattered heat Hatched where the heat is continuous. Dotted where many small heat sources sit close together.
143 isolated heat sources Each single heat source outside those areas, a pink dot with a black ring. Each is a place a crew can walk to.
Mop up buffer A dashed line a set distance in from the heat perimeter, so a crew can see which heat sits close to the edge.
Pink is a drone. Red came from elsewhere: a crewed aircraft's map or the incident's daily fire perimeter. Every map the Collaborative makes follows that rule, so anyone on the fire can see at a glance what the drone found.
How to read the map

Our mission

We process and standardize the thermal data UAS pilots capture over wildland fires, and deliver it to incident commanders and ground crews fast enough to act on.

A collaborative of UAS wildland fire pilots, and a recognized 501(c)(3) public charity in Medford, Oregon. EIN 42-2344101.

About the Collaborative

One roster, two seasons

Half the year is before the fire.

The same pilots and the same standard: over an active fire at night in summer, and over the fuel around a community in the off season.

A delivered topographic infrared map sheet for Fielder Mountain: graded heat sources inside a pink heat perimeter over contour lines.

Fire season · July to October Active fires, mapped at night 11 fires and 146 approved map sets in 2026. See it

An aerial view of homes on a wooded hillside, each outlined inside red, orange and yellow rings, with violet marking low growth under the trees.

Off season · November to June The fuel around communities, mapped before it burns Proven in Ashland, Oregon. Funding takes it to the next town. See it

The fuels picture is Rogue Reconnaissance work, the founder's company, for the City of Ashland.

Who this is for

Pilots, crews, GIS shops and supporters.

A pilot's hand holding the aircraft controller with the thermal map on its screen, in a burned forest at dusk.

For pilots

Fly the fire. The pipeline does the rest.

Field Maps on a phone at East Evans Creek: heat sources graded in yellow, orange and purple along a dashed mop up buffer on a topographic map, with the launch point marked.

For incident teams

One standard map set, on every fire.

The public data viewer on a phone: the Rowe Creek Complex perimeter in red on a topographic map, with drone heat sources in pink along its west edge.

For agency GIS

Live map layers and a public archive, no account.

Two bare hands pressed into pale ash and burned ground, feeling for heat.

Support the mission

Keep the maps free to the incident.

What the numbers say

11
Fires in the public archive: The 2026 season, counted September 12, 2026; 76
Nights in the public archive: A delivered map set for each, counted the same day; 876
Files anyone can download: Sheets, logs, KMZs and GIS layers, checked August 29, 2026; 177
Submissions processed: Through the pipeline in 2026, measured August 28, 2026

First funding milestone

The system is already working. Help fund its next stage.

We're raising the first $50,000 now. View live progress and give on Givebutter.

raised of $50,000

Counted by Givebutter

Help reach the first $50,000

Case studies

Four 2026 wildfires, mapped night by night.

All case studies

Where the fires were

Every dot is a wildfire with thermal maps on record.

A dot sits at the centre of the fire's delivered heat perimeters. The numbers match the list. Where two fires sit closer than a dot, they share one.

2026

Rowe Creek Complex 19 nights, July 28 to August 30
East Evans Creek 15 nights, July 21 to August 9
Fielder Mountain 11 nights, August 15 to August 26
Bologna 8 nights, July 18 to August 18
Rosenbaum 7 nights, August 13 to August 22
Brewer 6 nights, July 24 to August 1
Interstate 5 at milepost 57 5 nights, August 1 to August 5
Woodrat Mountain 3 nights, August 6 to August 19
Cottonwood Two nights, August 8 and 13
Little Bear Two nights, August 14 and 15
Eggo One night, August 6

Earlier fires, 2023 to 2025 8

2025

Upper Applegate Road June 26
Neil Creek, Grizzly Complex July 23

2024

Lee Falls Road Two nights, August 11 and 12
Kinzua, Fossil Complex September 13
Service, Fossil Complex September 19
Copperfield September 8
Salt Creek Ten flight days, in the migrated archive

2023

Tyee Ridge Complex Three flight days, in the migrated archive

Built with the fire community

Built in Oregon, open to operators and agencies anywhere.

UASWFC puts wildland fire drone pilots on one standard. The organizations listed here used it on Oregon wildfires in 2026, and the map sets follow the formats fire agencies already use.

The Oregon UAS Accelerator selected 34 organizations for the third and largest cohort of its Innovation Challenge. UASWFC took part as a nonprofit and received grant funding through the program. Read about the program ›

ODF has deployed the UASWFC platform in support of … wildfire incidents in the State of Oregon.

Sarah Prout State Aviation Coordinator, ODF

Board of Directors

The people accountable for the work.

Eli Polsky Founder · Executive Director
Jeff Pricher Director
Nikki Hart-Brinkley Director

Full bios on the About page

Field Notes

Latest from the field.

All field notes

Support the Collaborative

Keep the map in a crew's hands.

Heat hides in stumps and roots after the flames pass. The system that maps it for crews is running on live incidents, and a gift keeps it ready for the next fire season.

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