LiDAR as a Tool for Assessing Change in Vertical Fuel Continuity Following Restoration

Abstract

The need for fuel reduction treatments and the restoration of ecosystem resilience has become widespread in forest management given fuel accumulation across many forested landscapes and a growing risk of high-intensity wildfire. However, there has been little research on methods of assessing the effectiveness of those treatments at landscape scales. Most research has involved small-scale opportunistic case studies focused on incidents where wildland fires encountered recent restoration projects. It is important to assess whether restoration practices are successful at a landscape scale so improvements may be made as treatments are expanded and their individual effectiveness ages. This study used LiDAR acquisitions taken before and after a large-scale forest restoration project in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon to broadly assess changes in fuel structure. The results showed some areas where treatments appeared effective, and other areas where treatments appeared less effective. While some aspects could be modified to improve accuracy, the methods investigated in this study offer forest managers a new option for evaluating the effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments in reducing potential damage due to wildland fire.

New woodlands created adjacent to existing woodlands grow faster, taller and have higher structural diversity than isolated counterparts

“…Monitoring woodland height and structure across large spatial extents can be achieved using light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a technology that allows for the recording of three‐dimensional forest structure. Recently, LiDAR has been used specifically in restoration ecology across the globe: in Brazil, drone‐borne LiDAR was used to compare two different planting densities and two different management types in restored forests (Almeida et al 2019 a ), other studies in the region have shown it to be accurate at estimating many metrics pertinent to restoration success, such as aboveground biomass and tree species diversity (Almeida et al 2019 b ), work in Mexico has used LiDAR to create high resolution reference models for forests on different landform types (Wiggins et al 2019), and a study in Oregon used LiDAR to assess fuel accumulation in restored forests to combat wildfires (Olszewski & Bailey 2022).…”