Zone Matcher: A climate-based web application for deployment and assisted migration of forest trees

Populations of forest trees are generally adapted to the climates they inhabit. The farther trees are moved from their local climates, the more long-term growth and survival tend to decrease. Current tree deployment and assisted migration rely on ‘climate distance thresholds’ (CDTs), which are climatic distances beyond which tree performance is considered unacceptable. Fixed zone systems, which have been used to guide deployment of native or orchard seedlots for more than 50 years, usually consist of contiguous geographic areas (zone units) divided into elevational bands (zones). In contrast, focal zone systems allow seed transfer among fixed zones that have similar climates. By using recent historical climates and future climate projections, focal zones can be used for current tree deployment or assisted migration. We developed a focal-zone system for the Pacific Northwest region of North America. First, we worked with stakeholders to select the base zones for the system. These consist..., , , # Zone Matcher: A climate-based web application for deployment and assisted migration of forest trees

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.931zcrjww](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.931zcrjww)

## **Description of the data and file structure**

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data was generated using data from the USGS GMTED2010 Viewer ([https://topotools.cr.usgs.gov/gmted_viewer/index.html](https://topotools.cr.usgs.gov/gmted_viewer/index.html)) (U.S. Geological Survey 2010).

Climate data was generated using ClimateNA v7.42.

LANDFIRE Remap Canopy Height (CH) data ([https://www.landfire.gov/ch.php](https://www.landfire.gov/ch.php); Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS) and U.S. Geological Survey 2020) was used to identify forest and non-forest zones.

Zone rasters were derived from existing shapefiles and and shapefiles built from our DEM.

## **Files and variables**

### **File: Zone_Matcher_v3.2.zip (Zenodo upload)**

**Description:** Folder of files for the Zone Matcher web ...,