Colorado Statewide Forest Resource Assessment

include standard ownership data and a data mask that identify lands on allownerships that are available to be managed for wood products. 22After establishing the base vegetation data, the assessment team identifi edthe following datasets as core layers that are of a quality and scale that can beoverlaid with one another in response to assessment questions:• Watersheds of importance for drinking water• Habitat for imperiled wildlife species• Habitat for economically important wildlife species• Density of recreation opportunity• Wildland-urban interface• Wildfi re susceptibility index• Wildfi re intensity index• Post-fi re erosion risk• Insect and disease mitigation potential• Projected change in human modifi cation (fragmentation)The team also identifi ed or developed a select number of other geospatiallayers that, due to differences in the nature and scale of the data, are notappropriate to be combined with the core layers, but that nevertheless providevaluable information. These layers are:• Community forestry opportunity areas• Forest Legacy opportunity areas• Invasive species associated with forests• Areas of concern for air quality• Ecological departure• Lands available for forest product management• Urban layers• Biomass potentialWith the help of subject-matter experts, the core data layers were combinedand analyzed to identify opportunities related to the objectives describedin the national themes. These opportunities are presented in greater detailbelow. Non-spatial information is included in these sections to provide contextfor, and add value to, the spatial presentation.Data Gaps• In a surprising number of cases, the data that could most effectivelyanswer the questions being posed by this assessment were eitherentirely unavailable or unavailable at the state level for all ownerships.In these instances, the Assessment Steering Team documented datagaps that would be benefi cial to address prior to the next iteration ofthis document. These data gaps are summarized in Appendix C andhighlighted in the relevant sections below.22Lands available to manage for wood products are those forested lands with a slope of less than 50 percent that arelocated outside of national park or monument boundaries, or are federally designated as wilderness or roadless.20