Sierra Nevada reference conditions: A dataset of contemporary reference sites and corresponding remote sensing-derived forest structure metrics for yellow pine and mixed-conifer forests.

Contemporary reference sites in California's Sierra Nevada represent areas where a frequent, low-intensity fire regime - an integral ecological process in temperate dry forests - has been reintroduced after several decades of fire suppression. Produced by an intact fire regime, forest structural patterns in these sites are likely more resilient to future disturbances and climate, and thus can provide reference conditions to guide management and ecological research. In this paper, we present a set of 119 delineated contemporary reference sites in the Sierra Nevada yellow pine and mixed-conifer zone along with a suite of key remote sensing-derived forest structure metrics representing conditions within these sites.