Finding Rare Plants With Drones

Where even the goats can't get:

In the case of W. hobdyi, there was thought to be less than 600 individuals growing along the Na Pali Coast. Many of Kauai's endangered plants sprout only from the steepest cliffs, where goats can't reach. But the foliage now spread out before Nyberg amounted to more than 100 plants. He flew the drone within 5 meters (16 feet) of the greenery, snapping high-resolution photos to confirm his findings back in the lab. 

Nyberg and the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) team, working with the State of Hawaii's Division of Forestry and Wildlife, have rediscovered three species thought to be extinct or locally extinct from Kauai and uncovered larger populations of many other critically endangered species with populations smaller than 100 individuals.