Forest and Shrubland LiDAR Derived Products Outreach Session

Date and time: 3/17/2022, 2-5pm, virtual meeting,

This is an open meeting intended for technical staff and project managers who use or are interested in using LiDAR derived products in forest and shrubland dominated areas.  Feel free to contact Nathaniel (Nate) Roth at nathaniel.roth@conservation.ca.gov with any questions. We welcome you forwarding this invitation to interested parties.

Please RSVP  using this ESRI Survey123 link https://arcg.is/8Duab0, and hold the date on your calendar.

A calendar invitation will be sent to those who rsvp within about 2 business days.

All are welcome at this meeting.

A dedicated tribal outreach session will also be held in the near future. If you are affiliated with a tribe and wish to be specifically included in a notification for the tribal session, there is an option within the survey linked above.

Background:

The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) has received significant funding from the State Legislature for remote sensing technology to address public safety and natural resource management challenges with a focus on forests and shrublands of the state.  As part of its investment portfolio, CNRA is working with the USGS and other partners in a cost-share to purchase various new large-scale LiDAR acquisitions to include portions of California’s northern coast, and Sierra Nevada, totaling over 29 million acres. New areas of the state may be collected in subsequent years.

Meeting Intent:

  • To make use of both planned and recent past LiDAR data collections, CNRA (Loretta Moreno) in partnership with DOC (Nate Roth) will be hosting an information sharing and gathering session on March 17 for interested parties across California to gather input on the range of value-added/derived products agencies need for direct use in operational response, planning, modeling, and the like.  

Thereafter:

  • Once all input is collected, CNRA will prioritize needs and determine a plan for the data products to be purchased.
    • CNRA will work with all applicable organizations to solicit detailed user requirements for selected data products.
  • A summary of the input will be prepared and made available.

Meeting Format:

Our overall plan for the meeting is to:

  1. First Half:
  • DOC will provide an overview of the range of value-added LiDAR products available for operational use, covering various topical areas focused on forest and shrubland ecosystems (e.g., forest management, wildfire, carbon, water, species management, etc.).
  • Two short use case presentations:
    • Kass Green and colleagues will present an overview of their project work using LiDAR for detailed vegetation and resource mapping.
    • DJ Bandrowski of the Yurok Tribe will present on their use of LiDAR derived products for watershed management including river system modeling and analysis.
  • Question and answer session to follow.  
  1. Second Half: DOC will facilitate an online feedback gathering session to solicit input on operational needs and develop list of available data products that may address those needs.

Meeting Agenda and Location:

A link will be distributed prior to the meeting through the calendar invitation you’ll receive after I receive your RSVP. Please RSVP by visiting this link. The meeting format is virtual. Please contact Nate at nathaniel.roth@conservation.ca.gov should you have questions.

Thank you,

Nathaniel Roth, Chief Science & Data Advisor, California Department of Conservation and Elevation Working Group Chair