California Forest Observatory: Statewide Forest Monitoring Data

The California Forest Observatory is a multi-year, satellite-based forest monitoring dataset designed to map vegetation fuel distributions, change dynamics, and habitat structure across the state at high resolution. In order to support contemporary and legacy wildfire modeling systems, such as FARSITE, FlamMap, ELMFire and FSIM, the surface and canopy fuel datasets match the units and definitions of the LANDFIRE fuel and fire behavior products (Rollins 2009). Many of these datasets are also commonly used in wildlife habitat mapping, including canopy height, canopy cover, and canopy layer count, a metric of vertical habitat heterogeneity. Designed to quantify the ecological patterns driving environmental and land use policy in California, the Forest Observatory could serve as a blueprint for the next generation of conservation- and technology-driven forest monitoring.