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Lidar is already being used in drones. LIDAR can get through most tree canopies in the US because there are enough holes through the folliage that it can reach the ground as it flies along. Much of Western Oregon and Washington have been LIDAR scanned and anyone, including myself, can access it and use it to see what is under the trees. The State Department of Geology of both states have the data available to anyone that wants to use it.

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0: They will say no if asked. 3: you cannot fly a drone out of sight of an observer without something similar to a IFR flight plan. . As of a new FAA ruling, you wiil have to have a drone license to fly one. That requires passing an FAA administered test. New drones require what is basically a transponder to identify the drone and its operator. I just bought a new 2020 transponder for my airplane and it was over $3000 A miniturized one would be even more expensive. Those without a transponder can only be flown in designated and preapproved areas. You can bet it will not be National Forest lands. If the government is involved in any sort of protection or coverup, drone operation in BF habitat would never be authorized. I was going to build a drone this winter and after reading the FAA rule making proposal, decided I wanted no part of it. It simply would not work for BF research. That not withstanding, someone could discretely do drone operations illegally. The problem with that is, a ranger seeing a drone would seek out the operator. With the forest fire hysteria, drones will be considered a fire risk. The way I read the new drone rules, it would be cheaper as well as legal to use a real airplane for BF research. Equip an aircraft with LIDAR and hidden BF trails and even BF could likely be detected. That may be a lot cheaper than a fleet of expensive drones.