About
We are a collaborative of UAS wildland fire pilots.
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. Less exposure for the people on the line is the reason the organization exists.
What we do
A pilot flies a thermal sensor over a fire and uploads the night's heat layers as shapefiles, KML, KMZ or GeoJSON, from whatever software processed the flight. The pipeline turns them into the standard map set: two map sheets, a Google Earth file, a daily log and the GIS layers. The pilot reviews the set, and approving it puts those layers on the live map feeds the incident team already uses. Pilots keep ownership of their data, and their name stays on the maps.
Why it matters
The heat a crew needs to know about is often already on a pilot's memory card. Too often it stays there, or reaches the incident in a format nobody can open, and crews are committed to ground last night's flight would have flagged. We built the Collaborative to close that gap.
Beyond the incident
Year round work, not just fire season.
Wildland fire risk does not end when the smoke clears. We want the same standard and the same public archive to serve mitigation, prescribed fire, forest health and Community Wildfire Protection Plans. If your agency or community is planning that work, tell us about it.
As a nonprofit, the Collaborative can seek grants to put that work within reach of the agencies and communities that need it.
Status
An Oregon nonprofit public benefit corporation.
UAS Wildland Fire Collaborative is an Oregon nonprofit public benefit corporation, incorporated May 5, 2026, and is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Contributions to UASWFC are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
UASWFC is a tool, not a fire resource. It is built for every wildland fire drone pilot, whether they fly for a state agency, a federal agency or a private company, in any state: one pipeline and one standard, so incident commanders and ground crews get the data in the same shape every time.
Letter of support
The Oregon Department of Forestry, in their words.
The Oregon Department of Forestry has used the Collaborative's system on wildfire incidents in Oregon. In a letter of support, State Aviation Coordinator Sarah Prout writes that sharing UAS data the same way across incidents and jurisdictions addresses a known operational gap, and that ODF views UASWFC as a promising solution in this space.
Oregon UAS Accelerator
Chosen for the Innovation Challenge, Cohort 3.
The Accelerator chose 34 organizations for that cohort, the program's third and largest. UASWFC joined as an Oregon nonprofit and received grant funding through the program.
Board of Directors
The people accountable for the work.
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Eli Polsky
Founder · Executive Director
Founded the Collaborative after years of watching pilot data sit unused while crews worked from yesterday's picture.
Credentials
- Administratively Determined, US Forest Service
- Call When Needed resource, Oregon Department of Forestry
- Wildland fire UAS operator since 2012
In the press Southern Oregon University, March 2024
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Jeff Pricher
Director
Brings a fire chief's operational experience to the board, and his own seat on a national UAS subcommittee.
Credentials
- Fire Chief
- Member, National Wildfire Coordinating Group UAS Subcommittee
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Nikki Hart-Brinkley
Director
Advises on the geospatial standards behind the Collaborative's map sets, so pilot data lands in the schemas incident teams already use.
Credentials
- GIS advisor
- Esri affiliate
Get in touch
The fastest path is the contact form.
Pilot, fire manager or supporter: say which, and add a sentence or two about what you need.