SUNY ESF offers county-level forest and shrubland data to Columbia County task force

Representatives of Columbia County’s climate task force said a SUNY ESF researcher offered to provide county-specific forest and shrubland datasets and to use Columbia County as a test case to refine shrubland-to-forest modeling.

County staff described conversations with Colin Beer at SUNY ESF’s Climate and Applied Forest Research Institute (CAFRE). CAFRE can take statewide forest-cover and canopy-height layers and clip them to county boundaries, producing annual layers from 1990 through 2023 and additional attributes that permit pixel-level biomass estimates. The researcher also is developing a shrubland land-cover layer and — because the county has two years of high-resolution lidar (2016 and 2022) — CAFRE said it could analyze shrubland change and identify scrublands likely to transition into forest.

Why it matters: task force members said distinguishing shrubland from mature forest is important for targeting conservation and restoration. Members raised technical questions — including whether the data can distinguish native from invasive vegetation — and noted that identifying areas likely to regenerate could guide investments where they will maximize carbon sequestration.

Technical details and next steps: CAFRE will supply the county-layer extracts and metadata; staff will evaluate attribute fields (for example, whether species composition or indicators of invasives are included). Members said the data could be integrated with other county planning layers and used to inform conservation priorities and restoration projects. Staff said they expect to receive the data after responding to CAFRE’s last email and will report back when materials arrive.