Bonanza Creek LTER Photo Monitoring

This data file represents a photo monitoring project in large reference stands at Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research Site (BNZ LTER) 26 km southwest of the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, Fairbanks, Alaska. The photo monitoring took place in six mapped and measured reference stands representing white spruce, Alaska birch, and aspen-dominated stands, with one stand in the mature or old growth condition and a comparable site that was the same forest type until a high-severity, stand-replacing crown fire in 1983, for a total of 6 initial stands. The 1983 Rosie Creek Fire was a human-caused wildfire that burned 8,600 acres including about 1/3 of the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest. The old growth white spruce reference stand was expanded by 1.0 ha to two contiguous hectares, and the burned aspen stand by 0.25 ha to one full hectare (initial) plus an adjacent quarter-hectare. Since 1993 the second old-growth white spruce hectare and second burned aspen quarter-hectare received the full photo-monitoring protocol as the original 6 reference hectares, making a total of 8 photo stand locations.