Description

The US Forest Service Research Data Archive preserves and publishes short and long-term research data collected from studies funded by: Forest Service Research and Development (FS R&D); Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP); Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute (ALWRI). Of special interest, our collection includes data from a number of Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges. Each archived data set (i.e., "data publication") contains at least one data set, complete metadata for the data set(s), and any other documentation the researcher deemed important to understanding the data set(s). The data catalog entries present the metadata and a link to the data. In some cases the data link is to a different archive. There are both short-term and long-term reasons for archiving research data. Short-term in relation to what needs to be done to have the archive and its constituent data sets be useful today; long-term in relation to preserving that usefulness decades and centuries into the future. The idea of thinking decades and centuries into the future is important for an organization that focuses on forests.