Sierra Nevada contemporary reference site boundaries and corresponding remote sensing-derived canopy structure rasters

This data publication includes spatial data for 119 contemporary reference sites within the yellow pine and mixed-conifer zone of the western Sierra Nevada ecoregion as of 2018-2020. This ecoregion encompasses eastern and central California. Fire occurrence, fire severity, and management history datasets were used to identify and delineate the contemporary reference site polygons. We provide a set of spatially explicit forest structure metrics derived from high fidelity airborne lidar data for reference sites where concurrent lidar data were available. We also provide a set of forest structure metrics developed by the California Forest Observatory (CFO) to ensure reference data were available for all sites regardless of lidar availability. Vector spatial datasets are provided individually as shapefiles and combined as an OGC geopackage. Raster layers are provided individually as GeoTIFFs. All data are available in an ArcGIS Pro Package file which also includes a file geodatabase of the spatial data and author-defined layers. Also included is a document containing site descriptions (i.e., size, ownership, climatic setting, etc.) and a set of figures showing the distribution of climatic, topographic, and forest structure metrics for all reference sites grouped by dominant climate class as well as for each individual site.Contemporary reference sites in California’s Sierra Nevada represent areas where a low-intensity and frequent fire regime - an integral ecological process in temperate dry forests - has been mostly restored after more than a century of fire suppression. Forest structural patterns in these sites are likely more resilient to future disturbances and climate change since key ecological processes are intact. Forest structure metrics provide descriptions of horizontal and vertical structural patterns that are relevant to managers and ecologists working in the Sierra Nevada ecoregion. Forest structure metrics within reference sites can be used to guide management treatments or support ecological analyses.These data were published on 05/04/2023. On 05/15/2023 we updated the data downloads to include the SNRC_summaries.pdf file. Minor metadata updates, to include reference to newly published articles, were made on 01/17/2024. * These data are also available as a web map: https://uw.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c692d81e11254edc97a0d9d4a81f148e