Giant Drones Airlift Straw to Save Fire-Ravaged Spanish Mountains

Heavy-lift drones are flying bundles of straw onto steep, fire-scarred mountainsides in northwestern Spain to keep the blackened soil from washing away in the rain.

Footage released on October 21 by Naturaleza Castilla y León, the regional government’s environment account, shows crews on the ground loading netted bundles of straw that drones then carry up over charred, rocky slopes in the Burbia river basin in the province of León.

The regional government said it uses the drones in areas with extremely steep slopes where ground crews cannot work, spreading straw as a mulch to reduce erosion from rainfall after forest fires.

In August, the Junta de Castilla y León approved 500,000 euros for urgent forest and watershed works in the burned Valcarce, Burbia and Ancares basins, including spreading straw, building check dams and seeding.