ydqa ep 14

John Dickow: [00:00:00] How are you using this drone to help support your initiative? To help show people, educate people about the problems facing the lake?

Glenn Dickow: The drone helps because it gives a completely unique and new perspective to, to lake property owners or people who vote on the lake. That they may not have ever seen before.

John Dickow: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Your Drone Questions Answered. I'm John Dicko here to answer your drone questions or find the right person who can. Today we're answering the question, how are drones used to support environmental initiatives? I know environmental initiatives are kind of a broad topic and there's all kinds of them out there, and so today we're just gonna focus on one.

I've got Glen Deco with me today and yes, this is my dad. Uh, if you're wondering, but hey, it's Father's Day, so we'll call this the Father's Day episode. Thanks for coming on, dad.

Glenn Dickow: No problem. Glad to be here. [00:01:00]

John Dickow: So you are, uh, a citizen member of the Town of Delvin Lake Committee now that's in southern Wisconsin.

You're also a lake quality Advocate and run the website, delavan lake quality.com. So can you just tell me a little bit about your initiative, what you're doing for Devan Lake, um, what your mission is?

Glenn Dickow: We have a place up at, at Lake Delvin, love the Lake, spent my, uh, most of my life going, uh, on that lake for various reasons.

Uh, enjoying that lake and, uh, became attached to it when, uh, it became clear to me that there were issues associated with the lake. And it's water quality. How we, we measure water quality is really based on, um, uh, just a couple of measurements. One simple one is, can you look into the water and how far down in the water can you see?

They, they use a special disc called a sahi disk to measure that, and they measure it in meters. Um, the second, and probably the most [00:02:00] important is the amount of phosphorus that comes in the lake, and that comes in. From the surrounding area, and, um, typically it's from the surrounding farmland. But, uh, you know, we need to, we need to restrict that because if we don't, it comes into the lake and it creates and promotes plant growth, which, uh, drives a lot of plants growing in the lake, which creates a.

A lot of chlorophyl, which makes the, the lake green. You might see this in ponds that you pass on the highway and eventually what can happen is, um, you get an umbrella effect where the top of the lake becomes so dense, the bottom of the lake, um, dies, and the fish die and the lake dies. So we, you really need to be careful to make sure that, uh, you're, you're watching that a level of fo uh, phosphorus coming in and, um, keeping the lake healthy.

And I cared about that. So I wanted to get involved and I created a website and, and, uh, and my, uh, my goal is to to inform other [00:03:00] people, other people like me that love the lake. So

John Dickow: where does the drone come into play here? How are you using this drone to help support your initiative? To help show people, educate people about the problems facing the lake.

Glenn Dickow: The drone helps because it gives a completely unique and new perspective to, to lake property owners or people who boat on the lake that they may not have ever seen before. Interesting.

John Dickow: And so you've got some drone footage here that you've, uh, sent along to kind of help us show it. And, and we've got, uh, our video viewers.

Get a good look at this, but, um, let's describe it a little bit for our audio viewers as well. You've got some really nice, just big shots of the lake itself, but also you seem to be it like you kind of map out a little bit of almost the journey of this runoff going from. The farms to the ponds, then into the

Glenn Dickow: lake.

Yeah, exactly. Uh, so, so, um, you know, the lake is basically a drainage lake. All the water that's in the lake came from somewhere else, not a [00:04:00] spring. So, uh, one of the most significant areas that comes from is from, uh, Jackson Creek, which is northeast of the pond, our northeast of Full Lake Rather, uh, which is a tributary that goes right through a bunch of farmland.

Most of that phosphorus comes from that, that tributary in through the. The inlet and um, and so back when you mentioned the restoration of the lake in the, at the beginning of the nineties, they built ponds there to essentially let the water through Jackson Creek kind of meander a bit and let the phosphorus laden sediment settle before it gets to the lake.

And, um, well, Although, um, you can create that situation, create that filter, uh, you have to maintain that filter. And it was designed to be red dredged or cleaned out. Those ponds were, uh, to be cleaned out or dredged every three to five years. And so, um, what I wanted to show folks was [00:05:00] not take it from their perspective back, so, Here's the lake.

We all know the lake. Here's the inlet. Oh, we're somewhat familiar with that. Where do the ponds exist? How do we clean those? So the dredging, um, and the dredging creates a slurry, which is really a mixture of water in the sediment that has all the phosphorus in it. It gets pumped to a section, it gets dried out.

The clean water goes back to the, the lake. And that sediment that has all of that phosphorus in it eventually dries out. And we can give that back to the farmers. They can put that back on their fields.

John Dickow: Okay. And so that's like the solution, that's the, that's, you know, ultimately the solution to the problem.

And, um, and you've actually recently, maybe within the last year, have actually secured that initiative, right? I mean, they're, they're, they're draining. They're dredging the ponds now.

Glenn Dickow: And that has to do with, uh, folks, um, caring enough. To spend the money to get that project underway. So that kind of [00:06:00] led into the advocacy, which led into the website, and eventually we got enough people involved, enough people actively interested to push the project forward.

And so it's, it's going now and should be completed by this fall.

John Dickow: That's awesome. That's, that's great. Can I ask what your, what, what drone are you using? What model, uh, drone do you use to take these

Glenn Dickow: shots? Yeah. Well, I'm really proud. I just, I just got it recently. I met, I am a novice, uh, I got the D eight dj I mini three

John Dickow: Pro.

Okay. And how do you like it? I mean, is it, are there any specific features that you find kind of useful as you're, as you're doing this?

Glenn Dickow: Well, as I said, I am a novice and, uh, so. It is incredibly easy to use. Um, I, uh, I know a little bit about technology, but um, was completely terrified about getting into the whole drone thing and, uh, found it to be, uh, a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

Um, yes, there's a couple of [00:07:00] features, uh, again, so you can get a drone up in the air and you can, you can fly it safely. But then there was the whole cinematic, you know, picture taking aspect of it, which was also new to me. And the drone had some very easy to use, nice features, like a point of interest and, uh, tracking features, which, um, I found, you know, so intuitive, easy to use.

That, um, kind of made me look better than probably I should have.

John Dickow: Well, that's not a bad thing. I mean, I've been out there a couple times with you and I mean, there were, first of all, it's, you know, the, the terrifying expe aspect of it, of, of being a new novice drone pilot. Um, we've heard that before, you know, here on, uh, your drone questions answered, where, you know, everyone's afraid to crash their drone and, you know, it's an expensive piece of equipment.

Um, but. It's people say consistently that, uh, you just gotta do it. You just gotta try it and be willing to make mistakes. And, uh, yes, hopefully you don't crash your drone into the lake [00:08:00] and lose it forever. But, uh, little things might go wrong, but you learn from those as well. And so, um, I know when we are out there just.

There were sort of just some built in safety features, like running outta batteries. It would send it home, you know, exactly to the spot where you launched it from. That was really cool. Yes,

Glenn Dickow: very cool. I think that was my biggest fear is that something would happen. I wasn't watching and um, you know, I would participate in the crashing of it without actually crashing it.

Uh, I was just so pleased that in two occasions, one, because yeah, the battery was going low. And, um, on a second occasion, because it was going, going away and I honestly couldn't see it anymore. Um, just hit the home button, it came right back to me. No problem. Yep.

John Dickow: It takes a lot of the worry out. Sure does.

Um, and so yeah, that's, that's awesome. So what, what would be next, I think for you, I mean, in terms of your. You, you, [00:09:00] you've, you've kind of, this has all kind of happened organically for you where you've had a, uh, an initiative that you saw the drone as a useful tool. Are you taking any other new steps in terms of your drone piloting or maybe with the Lake Initiative itself?

I, I, uh,

Glenn Dickow: have to tell you that I have signed up for a course. The, I, I do wanna take the, the course to become, uh, certified. I think that's important. Um, not only in the play, uh, up at the lake, there's a private airport where I live. There's a private airport. I'm, I'm, uh, very concerned that I'm driving or flying the, the drone safely.

So I'm gonna take that. Uh, through, and I'm gonna prepare through Drone Academy, believe it or not. And I'm really, I'm really excited about that. I really am, uh, a little, little, uh, uh, little bit excited also about doing some other things with the drone that I haven't had a chance to use do yet with, uh, the family.

But as far as the science and the lake is concerned, um, there are, uh, the ponds is one section, but [00:10:00] there are many, many other sections of the lake. And I look forward to, um, taking the opportunity to fly over those sections, uh, create informational videos for lake lovers and stakeholders, and, uh, put those on my website as well.

John Dickow: Excellent. Really cool. And that's, that's such a cool story to hear that, you know, you've, you've, you've reached a level of success, uh, in your initiative by, you know, pointing out the problem of this runoff going into the ponds. Going into the lake. Those ponds are being dredged now. And so mission accomplished there.

But good to hear that you're not stopping there and that, uh, you're gonna continue to educate people. No, I'm excited about that. There's all kinds of environmental initiatives out there, things that we can do to improve our environment. Somebody's thinking about leveraging a drone to help illustrate a problem or a solution.

Uh, do you have any advice for that person if they're, if they're a beginner?

Glenn Dickow: Well, actually, like, I think something you just mentioned, don't [00:11:00] be afraid. Give it a try, do it. Um, I think the passion comes from what you were trying to convey. I, I think the benefits come from a new and unique tool to allow you to convey your message, uh, to tell your story.

And, um, and to learn yourself from that, um, I have to tell you that, and putting together that little clip that you saw, uh, gave me insights that I thought I had just intuitively from, you know, being involved, that made it a little bit easier for me to convey the message and, and we'll see, you know, we'll see how people take it, but, uh, yes, just get out there and do it.

Mm-hmm.

John Dickow: Well, I think, I think it's, it was a great idea to, to leverage the drone for something like that. Cause you're truly. You know, quite literally offering a bird's eye view of the problem. Yes. Um, something that charts or PowerPoint slides can't always accomplish. So, uh, I think that was a great idea.

[00:12:00] Thanks. Best of luck, uh, to you as you continue to kind of drive this initiative. Uh, Glen Dicko, he's a citizen member of town of Delvin Lake Committee. He's also a lake quality advocate. Running, running the website, delvin lake quality.com. Thanks for joining me, dad.

Glenn Dickow: All right, John. Thanks for having me. Hey, and call your mom once in a while, will you?

John Dickow: Okay. Okay. I'm gonna let you go now. Uh, and you, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. You can submit your own drone questions@ydqa.io. We'll find somebody who can get them answered for you. In the meantime, we'll see you in the sky.