The Landscape Disturbance-Succession Simulator (LDSim) shows that forest stewardship can restore historical conditions in far fewer than 100 years—the time it would otherwise take for nature to take its course if natural disturbances were permitted to resume.
What is LDSim?
- LDSim simulates historical fire and forest growth before Euro American settlement as a baseline reference for ideal forest conditions.
- Land managers use the model to measure reduced high severity fire by indicating which areas are furthest departed from the reference period.
- The model was developed by Dr. Kevin McGarigal to simulate the processes of disturbance and succession in the fire-adapted forests of the Northern Sierra during a 300-year historical reference period, circa 1550-1850.
- LDSim can also help determine when future conditions might be forcing the system to operate outside its natural range of variability and inform pathways to action at multiple scales, from the treatment unit to the planning level.
Vibrant Planet Data Commons' work in California's Sierra Nevada Area
The LDSim model has been calibrated to the Northern Sierra ecoregion, totaling over 8,000 square miles or 5 million acres. Much of the Sierra Nevada is federally-held public land, managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service.
LDSim data have been applied in the 275,000-acre North Yuba Forest Partnership project area to help develop treatments and prioritize locations that restore forest conditions closer to their natural range of variability.
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