California Conifer Forest Deforestation and Reforestation Trends 1991–2023

150,000 hectares of fire-driven deforestation occurred per year in California by 2021–2023 under a moderate severity definition. This dataset estimates postfire conifer regeneration probabilities at 900-m² resolution and overlays USFS reforestation records to calculate reforestation deficits. It was created by Hugh D. Safford using the POSCRPT platform and published on figshare in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling trends in fire-driven deforestation severity based on exponential growth trajectories described in the study.
• Assessing reforestation deficits on USFS and private lands using the overlay of natural regeneration probabilities and planting records.
• Comparing deforestation acceleration rates across forest types like mixed conifer, yellow pine, and high-elevation forests.
• Evaluating the gap between reforestation needs and actual planting efforts, particularly after 2006.

Strengths

• Provides a 33-year time series from 1991 to 2023.
• Includes spatial data at 900-m² resolution for the entire state of California.
• Uses three defined classes (moderate, high, acute) for deforestation severity and reforestation priority.
• Overlays field data and US Forest Service records to estimate reforestation deficit.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary file format is DOCX, which may require conversion for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Hugh D. Safford, using the POSCRPT (Postfire Spatial Conifer Regeneration Prediction Tool) platform.

Collection Method

Field data on postfire conifer regeneration combined with spatial modeling to estimate regeneration probabilities.

Time Range

1991 to 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 05:57:36.

Geography

California, USA