The lidar survey was conducted by vendor Earth Eye LLC, 3680 Avalon Park Blvd. The data were delivered in LAS 1.1 format with
information on return number, easting, northing, elevation, scan angle, and intensity for each return. This project is the
data acquisition phase of a administrative study being done in collaboration with the Nez Perce National Forest, Grangeville,
ID; Forest Service Region 1 Regional Office, Missoula, MT (Forest Inventory and Analysis and Remote Sensing/ Geospatial Team);
and Rocky Mountain Research Station - Forest Sciences Lab, Moscow, ID. The primary goal of the study is to provide operational
implementation of Lidar technology in support of project level planning. The proposed applications of Lidar in support of
planning are: vegetation structural modeling, erosion modeling, fuels, transportation planning, timber system planning, wildlife
habitat modeling, and stream quality. The Rocky Mountain Research Station will provide the development of peer-reviewed forest
structural metrics and technical support in implementation of Lidar technology. The technical specifications have been defined
to specifically support vegetation modeling using Lidar data. The project area consists of one contiguous blocks totaling
17, 325 hectares in north central Idaho. The project area consists of moderately variable topographic configurations with
diverse vegetation components. Clear Creek is a tributary of the Middle Fork Clearwater River located east of Kooskia, Idaho.
Vegetation is variable, transitioning from low elevation shrubland and mixed conifers to upper elevation spruce-fir. Ponderosa
pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) are the predominant species at lower to mid elevations occupying
a fairly xeric setting transitioning to grand fir (Abies grandis) and western red cedar (Thuja plicata) at mid elevations
and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) at the higher elevations.