Last week @mathew, @donblair, Forest Jahnke from the Crawford County Stewardship Project attempted to map the Bridgeport frac sand mine in Crawford County, WI.

The mine is not visible from the road, or from our mapping location which made it a bit more complicated. We mapped the site from a farm across the street we were given permission to use. It seems there was a farm adjacent to the mine site that would have been a bit closer, but the landowners there were not as amicable to us mapping the site.

Because of our location and the direction of the win, we spent most of the day trying the delta kite with different tail variations to get the camera to drift over the mining site. We found that the long fluffy tail that comes in the kite kit acted as a good stabilizer in the middle of the kite, while two tales on the right side of the kit worked to pull it in the direction of the mine.

While the site we were able to map from was nice and open, in order to get the kite over the mining site further we had to venture closer to the road, trees and barn - certainly not the safest option for us or the kite, but the stability of the delta made us confident that we would be able to pull it in without too much risk.

(Photo Credit: Forest Jahnke)

On our last attempt we were able to get the kite to drive exactly where we wanted it, but sadly, when we pulled it in to check the photos, either the SD card had filled or the battery died during that part of the flight and we were only able to capture a tiny corner of the mining site.

Fortunate for us, Forest had previously collected aerial images of this site and when we knit the map for the flight, we were able to compare the map with Forest's previous images. If you compare the two, you can see just how far the mine as expanded, at least in the direction of the road.

(Photo credit to Crawford County Stewardship Project)