Sierra Nevada Ecoregion LiDAR and Fuels Data, Collected in 2025
Vegetation structure and fuels data are essential for understanding fire behavior following management treatments such as mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. To evaluate these processes, 133 plots were established between July 17 and September 21, 2025 across national forests and parks in the Sierra Nevada. These plots consisted of treated and untreated areas for comparison. Plots were selected using stratified random sampling from treated and untreated areas. Hazardous and undesirable areas were filtered out, including steep slopes, areas near roads, non-federal lands, and areas within recent fire boundaries. Each plot had a diameter of 20 meters and was surveyed at both the transect and plot level. A terrestrial lidar scanner was also used to collect point cloud data at each plot. This data release includes manual fuel metrics in comma-separated values format (CSV), point clouds in the lidar data exchange format (LAS), and a shapefile (SHP) of plot locations.
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Complete Metadata
| @type | dcat:Dataset |
|---|---|
| accessLevel | public |
| bureauCode |
[ "010:12" ] |
| contactPoint |
{ "fn": "Birgit Peterson", "@type": "vcard:Contact", "hasEmail": "mailto:bpeterson@usgs.gov" } |
| description | Vegetation structure and fuels data are essential for understanding fire behavior following management treatments such as mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. To evaluate these processes, 133 plots were established between July 17 and September 21, 2025 across national forests and parks in the Sierra Nevada. These plots consisted of treated and untreated areas for comparison. Plots were selected using stratified random sampling from treated and untreated areas. Hazardous and undesirable areas were filtered out, including steep slopes, areas near roads, non-federal lands, and areas within recent fire boundaries. Each plot had a diameter of 20 meters and was surveyed at both the transect and plot level. A terrestrial lidar scanner was also used to collect point cloud data at each plot. This data release includes manual fuel metrics in comma-separated values format (CSV), point clouds in the lidar data exchange format (LAS), and a shapefile (SHP) of plot locations. |
| distribution |
[ { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Digital Data", "format": "XML", "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.5066/P13XNATF", "mediaType": "application/http", "description": "Landing page for access to the data" }, { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Original Metadata", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "text/xml", "description": "The metadata original format", "downloadURL": "https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.69494a34d4be024cc09f5a8e.xml" } ] |
| identifier | http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_69494a34d4be024cc09f5a8e |
| keyword |
[ "California", "Giant Sequoia National Monument", "Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest", "Kings Canyon National Park", "Lassen National Forest", "Plumas National Forest", "Sequoia National Forest", "Sequoia National Park", "Sierra National Forest", "Sierra Nevada", "Tahoe National Forest", "USGS:69494a34d4be024cc09f5a8e", "biota", "fire science", "fuel treatments", "fuels", "geography", "long-term trends", "point cloud", "terrestrial lidar", "treatments", "vegetation structure" ] |
| modified | 2026-01-09T00:00:00Z |
| publisher |
{ "name": "U.S. Geological Survey", "@type": "org:Organization" } |
| spatial | -121.3008, 35.6913, -118.3573, 40.2990 |
| theme |
[ "geospatial" ] |
| title | Sierra Nevada Ecoregion LiDAR and Fuels Data, Collected in 2025 |
