USFS Uses Machine Learning to Promote Meadow Restoration

Pacific Southwest Research Station U.S. Forest Service ecologists have developed new machine learning algorithms to identify potential locations of lost meadows where forests now encroach. Meadows in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains historically covered nearly three times the area they do today. New maps of lost meadows provide a large-scale perspective to help us think differently about the historical importance of meadows and the positive impact their restoration could have on streamflow and wildfire management.