Please submit your vote by 12:00 pm, Thursday, September 3, 2015.
The UAS Policy Work Group has been asked (by Gary Darling) to review Senate Joint Resolution 18 – using UAS for drought response and make a recommendation that the California GIS Council endorse this resolution. The text of the resolution may be read at:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m0Z4gbx_k7yX2o1jefoocjv3-hYG2NDnIi9kx9m25eU/edit?usp=sharing
and also at
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SJR18
Ballot Vote: 10 of the Committee’s 17 members voted. All votes were affirmative.
Therefore, the UPWG requests that the California GIS Council endorse SJR 18. Time is of the essence, so please conduct a vote on this resolution via email.
Summary: The Joint Resolution asks the Federal government to lift the ban on commercial use of UASs for agricultural use in counties designated as “drought emergencies” by NOAA. It requests that the draft FAA rules on UAS operation, issued February 2015, apply to drought-affected agriculture to enable better water conservation and crop management.
Discussion:
The FAA rules still require a lot of paperwork, which may discourage many farmers from participating. A better request might be that the FAA allow UASs to be used for agriculture in drought counties following hobbyist rules. However, the political sense of the resolution authors is that hobbyist rules would “raise a red flag” in front of the FAA. It was also recognized that the FAA will probably ignore this State-initiated resolution as it currently stands anyway. The “larger” political objective is to make a public statement.
A separate effort is underway to designate U.C.Davis as a “Center of Excellence” by the FAA, thus enabling it to apply for a blanket COA to include all drought-stricken farmers.
A Joint Resolution does not get signed by the Governor, the Administration does not weigh in, so California governmental employees need not be concerned about participating in this endorsement.