Fire Behavior Assessment Team: pre- and post-fire canopy cover data

This data publication contains the raw and processed field-collected pre- and post-fire tree canopy cover data for the plots in which pre- and post-fire fuels, and fire behavior data were collected by the Fire Behavior Assessment Team (FBAT) on a subset of wildland fires in the United States from 2003-2017. FBAT collects pre- and post-fire fuels and tree data along with fire behavior measurements on wildland fires. FBAT is an interagency group of primarily Forest Service employees with both monitoring and fireline qualifications which collects pre- and post-fire fuels and tree data along with fire behavior measurements on wildland fires. Logistics (proximity to instrumentation/crew members), funding, fire activity, and monitoring questions influenced the geographic regions and fires where sampling was attempted, for instance, fuel treatments recorded in the Forest Service Activity Tracking System (FACTS), as well as tree mortality areas, were each targets for FBAT sampling in the past. This publication includes pre- and post-fire canopy cover measurements recorded in multiple locations for each of 11 different wildland fires. Measurements from 2014 and earlier were ocular estimates, and data post-2014 were collected using a densiometer.
These data are collected by the FBAT team to provide measures of pre-fire fuels/vegetation, active fire behavior (with sensors in the fire), and post-fire fuels/vegetation conditions during wildfires and prescribed fires for improving understanding and tools related to fire behavior and fire effects.
For more information about FBAT data see: https://www.fs.fed.us/adaptivemanagement/projects_main_fbat.php. These data were published on 04/16/2020. On 12/03/2020 this data publication was updated to include a supplemental file that provides a diagram of the FBAT plot layout and a brief list of key method changes throughout the years FBAT has taken data to present (2020).