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Bakersfield, California

Oil, orchards and a river out of the Sierra, at the bottom of the valley.

Kern County is the valley's oil county and one of its biggest farm counties at once, with the Kern River coming down out of the Sierra through a canyon that burns, the Tehachapis and their wind farms to the south east, and a county fire department that covers all of it. Farm planning, corridor terrain and fire are the flights.

Talk to Eli All of California

The ground

Bakersfield and Kern County

The city sits where the Kern River leaves its canyon onto the valley floor, with the oil fields on the bluffs north of town and almonds, pistachios, citrus, grapes and carrots across the flats. South the Grapevine climbs toward Los Angeles; south east the Tehachapi Mountains carry the wind farms; north east the Kern canyon rises to Lake Isabella and the Sequoia National Forest, where the Erskine and French fires burned in 2016 and 2021. Water comes by canal and the water bank is under the ground west of the city.

Who buys mapping here

  • City of Bakersfield: Public Works, Recreation and Parks, Water Resources, the GIS group
  • Kern County: Public Works, the Planning and Natural Resources Department, Emergency Services
  • The Kern County Fire Department, which covers the county and the city both
  • The Kern River Watermaster, the Kern County Water Agency and the irrigation districts
  • The Sequoia National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management's Bakersfield Field Office
  • Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison, whose territories split the county
  • The Tree Foundation of Kern and California State University, Bakersfield
  • Almond, pistachio, citrus, grape and carrot operations, and the oil field operators with land to manage

Getting there

From Medford

About nine hours from Medford down Interstate 5, or a flight into Meadows Field. Bakersfield closes the valley trip that starts in Fresno.

The public lidar

What exists, and what it misses

Kern County has federal lidar over the valley floor and parts of the mountains, and the oil and water agencies hold their own. A field's drainage, an orchard's replant, a canyon unit after a fire, a wind farm road or a corridor across the county each call for a current flight sized to the job.

What we would fly

The lanes that fit Bakersfield

Three dimensional view of a farm elevation model with fields, tree mounds, and the pond in relief.
Farm Planning
Orthomosaic of a creek corridor through Phoenix, Oregon, clipped to the project area.
Property
Infrared heat map over a lake and forest: heat perimeter, isolated heat points classed by temperature, and 50, 100, and 200 foot mopup buffers.
Wildland Fire
Post harvest assessment map for the Oregon Department of Forestry: downed woody debris volume by decay class in one acre cells, with species of standing trees.
Forestry

Every service

Everything we do, in Bakersfield

  • Farm planning Start here

    Terrain, drainage low points, slope and sun, canopy, and plan overlays drawn on a current orthomosaic of the whole farm.

  • Property and site design Start here

    Design ready contours, tree points and surface models, in the formats and coordinate system the engineer specifies.

  • Night infrared on active fires Start here

    Heat perimeters and hotspots in the incident team’s hands before the morning briefing. The pipeline that builds the package runs at the UAS Wildland Fire Collaborative, the nonprofit we founded.

  • GIS consulting and data

    Hosted data, web maps and dashboards, Survey123 field apps, scripted reporting, and the cleanup of the data you already have.

  • Drone LiDAR

    Bare earth under the canopy, contours, surface and canopy height models, classified point clouds and line corridors, PPK controlled and checked.

  • Tree inventory and canopy

    Every crown in a city, a park system or a campus, with height, species and health, checked against trees on the ground.

  • Forestry

    Stand inventory, species and health classes, downed woody debris counted and measured from the air, post harvest monitoring.

  • Rivers, riparian and habitat

    Species along a river corridor, wetlands and habitat, cold water seeps found with thermal, and baselines for restoration work.

  • Wildfire fuels and CWPP support

    Canopy height, ladder fuels and structure exposure for a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, citywide when the plan needs it.

  • Multispectral imaging

    Five calibrated bands, vegetation indices, and species and health classification with its accuracy reported.

  • Thermal infrared

    A calibrated temperature in every pixel, flown as a mapping mission: fire heat classified in degrees, prescribed fire mortality, cold water seeps.

  • Federal and agency work

    Fire infrared, LiDAR on abandoned mine lands and forest data for federal land managers. Registered in SAM.gov.

Nearest work

Kern County waits for a first flight. Standing in: the Talent nursery plan, bare earth under chaparral on BLM mine sites, and a 2026 incident flown night after night.

Three dimensional overview of the farm elevation model draped over the landscape.

Farm Planning 2023

A farm plan on real ground

Plant Oregon with Oregon Urban Rural and Community Forestry, a tree nursery in development

Terrain, ponds, tree mounds, and a site plan drawn on a current ortho of the whole farm.

Read the case
Shaded relief of Harley Gulch from the drone LiDAR bare earth model, canyons and old workings in relief.

Property 2025

Ten abandoned mines, bare earth under the chaparral

Bat Conservation International, on Bureau of Land Management land, Ukiah Field Office

Bare earth, surface, and canopy height models over 779.4 acres of abandoned mine sites under steep chaparral, checked against the public LiDAR at 0.320 m RMSE.

Read the case
Night thermal map of the East Evans Creek fire, scattered heat sources glowing across burned ground.

Wildland Fire 2026

East Evans Creek, a season inside one fire

Oregon Department of Forestry

Fifteen nights on one incident across three weeks, eight divisions, and a heat map in the GIS specialist's hands before the morning briefing.

Read the case

The record

Every project we have published

Forestry and trees

Rivers and habitat

Wildfire fuels and planning

Night infrared on fires

Terrain and site design

Farm planning

Bakersfield and Kern County.

A field, an orchard block, a canyon unit or a corridor. Say where and when and Bakersfield closes the valley trip.

Talk to Eli

Email info@roguerecon.net or call 808 298 6290.