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Ever wonder how science knows what it knows? Mostly by thinking about observations made on the natural world, also known as data. The roots of our research are in the data we collect. Short-term sharing of research data is important for the transparency and reproducibility of the research results our scientists publish in research papers. Preserving these data for long-term use is important to being able to re-use the data for multiple purposes. The FS Research Data Archive offers a catalog of hundreds of research datasets funded by Forest Service Research and Development (FS R&D) or by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP). Of special interest, our collection includes long-term datasets from a number of Forest Service Experimental Forests, Ranges, and Watersheds (FS EFRs).

Data publications listed in the catalog are publicly available either from us or another scientific data repository (the publication description page will include a link to the dataset’s location if in a different repository). Each published dataset comes with a complete set of metadata (data documentation) and other information the scientist considered important to understanding and successfully using the data. Most data publications that we have released are downloadable; others have a database query interface to help you get that part of the large dataset which is of interest to you. Some data are also available through a map service. Check out the catalog and discover if there are data of interest to you!

We encourage you to use our data publications! We do ask that you acknowledge the work of our scientists by using the citation provided with each data publication. An example and more information are available in Terms of Use.

If you have questions, please contact the Archive team.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/