| Land managers are faced with identifying preferred habitat for the California spotted owl for environmental analysis and forest restoration, but existing vegetation map products over-generalize the existing condition. These products rely on average forest stand conditions for canopy cover density and size classes (i.e. California Wildlife Habitat Relationship Classification System (CWHR)) which may not accurately reflect forest canopy and structural characteristics used by the owl for foraging and reproduction. Additionally, the remote sensing technologies used to generate these map products cannot effectively characterize fine-scale habitat structures important to the owl. LiDAR was used to assess canopy densities, tree size distribution, canopy strata, successional stage, and spatial arrangement of early seral habitats, individual trees and groups of trees on ecologically meaningful topographic positions. This study was conducted on the Tahoe National Forest in the central Sierra Nevada where spotted owls have successfully reproduced. Results show much more variability around nest sites and within protected activity centers and home range core areas than previously understood, primarily due to assessments that were limited in scope and scale. |