Overstory and understory data from a contemporary reference stand: the Beaver Creek Pinery, Lassen National Forest, CA

The Beaver Creek Pinery (BCP) is a ponderosa pine and black oak dominated stand in the Ishi Wilderness, Lassen National Forest, California. It has never been logged and due to its remoteness, has experienced more fire than many other such forests. Fires in 1990 and 1994 killed a substantial proportion of the ingrowth that is common in many other fire excluded stands, restoring a structure that is believed to be similar to what was found under historic fire regimes. This data publication contains measurements of tree, understory vegetation, and coarse woody debris variables taken in July of 1998 in the BCP, and may provide a useful reference for structural restoration of forests at similar elevations and of similar species composition.
The purpose of this project was to quantify the composition and structure of overstory and understory vegetation in a contemporary reference stand that experienced numerous fires in the 20th century. Among the variables of interest were the density of various tree size classes as well as the heterogeneity and spatial patterns of different structures (overstory and understory) within this stand.
These data were collected with the intent of periodic re-measurement. The plots are being re-measured during the summer/fall of 2016 as part of a Joint Fire Science Program funded study, and may be re-measured again in the future, for example, following disturbance/fire. Original metadata date was 10/03/2017. On 05/04/2021 minor metadata updates were made to keywords.