Title:

TreeMap 2020 CONUS: A tree-level model of the forests of the conterminous United States circa 2020

Author(s):

Zimmer, Scott N.; Houtman, Rachel M.; Leatherman, Lila S. T.; Housman, Ian W.; Shrestha, Abhinav; Shaw, John D.; Riley, Karin L.

Publication Year:

2025

How to Cite:

These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citation:

Zimmer, Scott N.; Houtman, Rachel M.; Leatherman, Lila S. T.; Housman, Ian W.; Shrestha, Abhinav; Shaw, John D.; Riley, Karin L. 2025. TreeMap 2020 CONUS: A tree-level model of the forests of the conterminous United States circa 2020. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2025-0031

Abstract:

TreeMap 2020 CONUS provides a tree-level model of the forests of the conterminous United States. Throughout the conterminous United States (CONUS), for each forested pixel in 30×30 meter (m) gridded landscape data for circa 2020, we identified and assigned the most similar Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot. We used a Random Forest machine-learning algorithm to impute the forest plot data to a set of target rasters provided by Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) and Daymet (Daymet). Predictor variables consisted of percent forest cover, vegetation height, and vegetation type, as well as topography (slope, elevation, and aspect), location (latitude and longitude), climatic variables (precipitation, shortwave radiation, snow water equivalent, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, vapor pressure, and vapor pressure deficit), and disturbance history (time since disturbance and disturbance type).

The main output of this project (the GeoTIFF included in this data publication) is a raster map of imputed plot identifiers at 30×30 m spatial resolution for the conterminous U.S., corresponding to landscape conditions circa 2020. In the attribute table of this raster, we also present a set of attributes drawn from the FIA databases, including forest type and live basal area. The raster of plot identifiers can be linked to the FIA databases available through the FIA DataMart to map hundreds of attributes available there, or to the comma-separated file included in this data publication to access a more limited set of tree-level attributes. The data files included in this publication also contain attributes for each tree in the plots that were assigned, including the FIA plot PLT_CN for the plot on which the tree was measured (or control number, a unique identifier for each time a plot is measured), the subplot number, the tree record number, the corresponding number of trees per acre it represents due to the study design, the status (live or dead), species, diameter, height, actual height (where broken), crown ratio and a code for cause of death where applicable. Previous versions of TreeMap have been validated for characteristics including percent live tree cover, height of the dominant trees, forest type, species of trees with most basal area, and snag hazard category. Previous versions of TreeMap are being used in both the private and public sectors for projects including fuel treatment planning, snag hazard mapping, and estimation of terrestrial carbon resources.

Keywords:

biota; environment; Ecology, Ecosystems, & Environment; Forest & Plant Health; Inventory, Monitoring, & Analysis; Natural Resource Management & Use; Conservation; Ecosystem services; Forest management; Restoration; Timber; Wilderness; Forest Inventory and Analysis; imputation; LANDFIRE; random forest; tree list; conterminous United States; continental United States; United States; CONUS

Related publications:

• Houtman, Rachel M.; Leatherman, Lila S. T.; Zimmer, Scott N.; Housman, Ian W.; Shrestha, Abhinav; Shaw, John D.; Riley, Karin L. 2025. TreeMap 2022 CONUS: A tree-level model of the forests of the conterminous United States circa 2022. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2025-0032
• Riley, Karin L.; Grenfell, Isaac C.; Wiener, Jason M.; Finney, Mark A. 2022. TreeMap 2016 dataset generates CONUS-wide maps of forest characteristics including live basal area, aboveground carbon, and number of trees per acre. Journal of Forestry. 2022: 607-632. https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvac022 https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/65597
• Riley, Karin L.; Grenfell, Isaac C.; Finney, Mark A.; Wiener, Jason M. 2021. TreeMap, a tree-level model of conterminous US forests circa 2014 produced by imputation of FIA plot data. Scientific Data. 8: 11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00782-x https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/61840
• More (7 total)

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