Mapping Forest Stand Characteristics Using LIDAR

LIDAR is becoming more cost effective and available on National Forest lands. Methodology was developed using the PNW Fusion software and the hydrography tools in Arc/Map and Imagine to measure forest stand characteristics for the Ashland Watershed in SW Oregon. The Fusion software was used to develop bare earth and canopy surface layers from the raw LIDAR point data. The hydrography tools were used to map individual trees and their associated tree heights to create quadratic mean diameter and structure maps. Variables in this process such as pixel size, smoothing algorithms, and software bugs can greatly affect the output. This presentation outlines the steps to create an individual canopy tree map, which can then be used to ascertain forest stand characteristics.