Forestry – Lidar: Gross Volume per Acre (cords/ac)

This data is a Lidar-derived estimate of the volume of trees in cords per acre. It was developed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources using Lidar data that was collected as part of the Minnesota 3DEP USGS Lidar program, along with Plot Based Inventory (PBI) data. It represents gross volume in cords per acre for all trees of five inches or larger dbh. Hahn's (1984) volume equations, based on diameter at breast height and merchantable height of sample trees, were used to estimate species-specific individual tree volume that were then summarized to plot level to obtain total volume on a per-acre basis. The field sample data were collected over 120 plots of one-tenth acre size, and for each of the plots more than 40 Lidar metrics were derived based on the co-located point cloud to fit a linear regression model that were ultimately applied over the entire area of interest using selected Lidar predictors at 20 meter spatial resolution. This information can provide foresters a better understanding of the stand and how it should be managed.