1       Canopy Height Measurement

 All the canopy height information presented here originated with a 2018 LiDAR Flyover in certain sections of Humboldt County, California.  The point cloud data  from the flyover was made available on the National Map in square kilometer tiles.  I downloaded this information for Humboldt Redwoods State Park groves and processed the ground and first return points through ArcGIS, creating canopy height output data and visualizations.

2       Overall Picture

Most of the groves with trees over 80 meters are located adjacent to the South Fork Eel River or along Bull Creek. There are about 1,200 or so acres that support 80 meter or greater crowns and appear as yellow/orange/red shaded areas on these maps.

3       Summary Stats

Here are a couple summary charts for crown height.  The most common height band in these groves is between 90 and 100 meters. 

4       LiDAR vs Ground View

When viewing the LiDAR canopy visualizations it is evident the tall trees tend to grow in clusters,  forming a kind of tree archipelago in the forest.  The trees tend to band together in small groups.  Certainly their interwoven roots are supporting the tree groups both structurally and nutritionally.  Then they may also have a common ancestor tree.

Here are paired LiDAR and on the ground views for sample sections of three areas in HRSP.  In the LiDAR visualizations, white indicates over 110 meters height, purple over 105-110 meters height, red 100-105 meters height, orange 90-100 meters height, yellow 80-90 meters height, green 70-80 meters height, and blue 35-70 meters height.

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Thanks for reading.