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Lake County publishes public LiDAR derivatives to help landowners, firefighters and planners
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Summary
County staff and partners announced public access to LiDAR-derived map products — canopy height, slope, hillshade, ladder fuels and 1‑ft contours — on the county GIS portal; Cal Fire and consultants said the data will improve fuels mapping, grant applications and parcel-level planning and enable new tree‑mortality tracking and fine‑scale vegetation mapping in 2026–2027.
County GIS staff and regional partners unveiled a new public set of LiDAR derivative datasets and a county viewer that allows landowners and non‑GIS users to explore hillshades, slope, canopy height, canopy cover, ladder‑fuel layers and download 1‑foot elevation contours. Mark Tuckman of Tuckman Geospatial and county GIS specialist Lon Sharp demonstrated navigation, layer detail and tools for exporting elevation profiles and contours for field use.
Tuckman said the products will be useful for forest management and fuels‑reduction prioritization, enabling property owners and land managers to identify canopy height, understory ladder fuels and slope characteristics. "The canopy height model gives you information about the height of trees... the yellow crowns are about 150 feet tall," Tuckman said in the demonstration. Cal Fire assistant chief Mike Wink called the portal "user friendly" and noted it will help with grantwriting and project prioritization across multiple counties.
Presenters said the static LiDAR snapshot will be updated programmatically using NAIP aerial imagery every two years for change detection; additional datasets (tree‑level mortality maps, fine‑scale vegetation maps by CDFW/Chico State) were announced for delivery in 2026–2027. County staff encouraged users to consult the layer details and the viewer’s download tools for contours and data extracts.
