Concord Academy sits beside 25+ acres of wetlands whose biodiversity is largely unrecorded. With a DJI Mavic 3M and funding from the Class of 1972 Green Seed Fund, we're building the record: automated, biweekly, and shared with the people who can act on it.
AI analysis of the multispectral imagery indicated signs of sulfate-driven weed growth across the surveyed wetlands, likely fed by the nearby Sudbury River, confirmed to carry lead and sulfate concentrations 4× the typical range.
We're now working with Concord's natural resource division to extend the survey across the town's broader wetlands. Surveyed so far: the Quad, the soccer fields, and the soon-to-be Pollinator's Meadow, in multispectral, depth, and RGB.
Local government and conservation agencies can only act on what they can see. The real work was turning 25 acres of unrecorded land into a dataset someone can defend a decision with.