Standardized vegetation cover data from mature forests on federal lands of Washington, Oregon, and California

This data publication contains tabular data of overstory and understory vegetation composition collected from the mid-1950s to early 2000s in relatively undisturbed, mostly mature stands across forested federal lands of Oregon, Washington, and California. Most plots are on National Forest System lands, with some on Bureau of Land Management or Tribal land. Plots were distributed to represent the diversity of vegetation types across each National Forest or other management unit. These Ecology plots are not, and were never intended to be, permanent plots. Data include vegetation cover data such as lifeform, scientific name, and species cover for 38,560 plots. The longitude, latitude, and Regional ID number are also provided for each plot, with a supplemental file relating Regional IDs to land management units.
These data were used to create typologies of potential vegetation ("Plant Associations") or ecological types (plant communities) that would allow forest managers to infer site conditions (topographic, climatic, edaphic, etc.) from the existing overstory and understory composition. Plant Association or Ecological Type (Plant Community) Guides were developed for groups of National Forests and adjacent lands across Forest Service Regions 5 and 6. Supplemental information includes a list of citations of these Plant Association and Ecological Type Guides, most of which were developed based on these plot data.