Vegetation and fuels data from the Fire & Fire Surrogate Study in western Montana: 20-year summary

This data publication contains vegetation and fuels measurements from 2001-2022 at the Lubrecht Fire & Fire Surrogate Study Site, which was established in 2000 and includes four treatments: an untreated control, prescribed burn, a thinning, and a thinning followed by prescribed burn. This study site is located at the University of Montana's Lubrecht Experimental Forest in western Montana, approximately 50 kilometers east of Missoula. Data span 20 years from pre-treatment in 2001 through 2022, 20 years post-treatment. The publication includes six tabular data sets (comma-separated values (CSV) files): 1) tree level data (≥ 10.16 centimeter (cm) diameter at breast height (DBH), 2) plot level sapling density by species and diameter class, 3) plot level seedling density by species and height class, 4) plot level understory vegetation cover, 5) plot level fuel loading, and 6) plot level aboveground carbon stocks and potential fire severity (i.e., predicted tree mortality if a fire occurs).
The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term (15-20 year) treatment effects (i.e., forest vegetation, fuels, potential fire severity, and carbon dynamics) of prescribed fire and mechanical thinning, as a way to reduce high-severity wildfire and restore ponderosa pine forests.
For more information about this study and these data, see Hood et al. (2024). These data were published on 12/01/2023. On 01/17/2024, the metadata was updated to include reference to a newly published article.