Sagehen’s data is the result of a significant investment of resources over many decades. The station makes its data available free of charge with the provision that users will help us stay in business by:
- Complying with station use requirements— including proper publication credit to the station & to the data owners!
- Complying with our “Fair-Use” policy (see below);
- Submitting a reserve use application.
“Fair-Use” Policy for Sagehen data:
Kindly inform the appropriate Principal Investigators of how you are using site data and of any publication plans. If the Principal Investigators feel that they should be acknowledged or offered participation as authors, they will let you know and we assume that an agreement on such matters will be reached prior to publishing and/or use of the data for publication. If your work directly competes with the Principal Investigator’s analysis they may ask that they have the opportunity to submit a manuscript before you submit the one that uses their data. In addition, when publishing, please acknowledge the agency(s) that supported the research (including Sagehen Creek Field Station).
Obnoxiously, data links are constantly changing. If you find a broken link on this page AND locate an alternate source for the data, please let us know.
METADATA
- Information about Sagehen’s sensors can be found in the Berkeley sensor database.
- Information about Sagehen data collection and monitoring dataset can be found here.
Our Google Map includes precise locations of sensing & data collection sites in the basin.
Click on “View Larger Map” link, then use the forward links at the bottom of the page to see more pages of features. Use the “View in Google Earth” tab to export a .KMZ file for more control over display options.
DATA
See a table of Sagehen datasets with links. There is more information about selected data sets below:
Meteorology
DENDRA data display and download from Tower #1.
Use the following links to access general baseline data collected by Station staff and others.
Report unusual weather or flooding to the National Weather Service: (800) 446-1428
Sagehen Weather Station Data (Towers #1-11) from Keck Hydrowatch, 2009-present…
Lower Camp Manual Precipitation Measurements from NOAA Cooperative Observer Program, 1953-2007
East Meadow Weather Station Data (Tower #1) from WRCC, 1953-present…
The data set from Sagehen’s oldest on-site weather station–Tower #1–dates from 1992 to the present. Archived daily weather data is available through the National Climate Data Center (fee service). Most recent data available below.
In 2018, UNR hydrology researchers published 55 years of QA/QC meteorological data from Sagehen.
Weather RADAR
Historical NEXRAD (Next Generation Weather Radar system) weather radar data for the U.S. can be downloaded from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center.
Map of radar station locations.
Clicking on any of the stations brings up the station page, which has a link to the coverage map for that station. Reno (KRGX) or perhaps the Beale (KBBX) or Sacramento (KDAX) radars would probably be best for Sagehen.
Up to 24 hours of data can be ordered from, each page. Clicking on ‘Create Graph’ provides a diagram showing the switches back and forth between ‘precipitation’ and ‘clear-weather’ modes each day; and then data can be ordered from this page. Enter your e-mail address and you will be sent an e-mail containing your HAS (HDSS Access System) Job Number. This may take a few minutes, or a few hours, to arrive.
To order longer spells of data, go directly to the HAS page.
The data can be displayed graphically, direct from the HAS servers, by NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit. Although it is a beta version, it was recommended to me as the one to use for the high-resolution NEXRAD level II data by John Kobar and Steve Ansari at NOAA. It needs your computer to have Java 5 or later.
Start the Weather and Climate Toolkit and the window for downloading data may appear automatically, but if not, it’s on the data menu, under ‘Load Data’. The NCDC tab allows you to enter a HAS job number. Press ‘List Files’ and you can select one or more from the remote server. It’s possible to select them all and press ‘Animate’ to, well, produce an animation, but it may take 40 minutes or an hour before the animation is ready. There are around 200 images for a 24-hour period.
For lower resolution radar data, there is the Java NEXRAD viewer.
There are other options, which are explained, starting with the first of the links above.
National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP NTN Sagehen) data from our East Meadow (since November, 2001).
The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) maintains a refrigerated archive of precipitation samples from the National Trends Network (NTN). NTN archive samples are filtered, stored in 60-mL polyethylene bottles at 4 deg. C, and are retained for five years. Archive samples are made available to interested researchers upon request after the specified retention period. The full NADP archive sample policy is posted here.
If you would like to request NADP archive samples or have further questions, please contact Chris Lehmann at clehmann@illinois.edu or call 217-265-8512. Requesters pay the nominal cost of preparing and shipping the samples; a cost estimate will be provided before samples are shipped.
Natural Resources Conservation Service SNOTEL :
- Temperature, snow depth and water equivalent data.
- Site name=”Independence Lake“: from Carpenter ridge near the head of Sagehen Creek basin.
- Site name=”Independence Camp“: from near the outflow of Independence Lake.
- Site name=”Independence Creek“: from near the convergence of Independence Creek & Little Truckee River.
- Display “Independence Lake” site data as graph.
- Snow Course and monthly SNOTEL data tables since 1937.
Sagehen Creek
U.S. Geological Survey stream flow & chemistry data:Sagehen Creek Field Station has been monitoring the creek since October, 1953; we have been a Hydrology Benchmark Network (HBN) site since 1970. This page has more information about the Sagehen HBN and NADP-NTN programs.Real-time data from the gauge on Sagehen Creek, includes: water temperature, discharge & gauge height.Stream flow data (since October, 1953).Water quality monitoring data (since May, 1968).National Water Quality Assessment Program. Search for our 2011 and 2016-present data using these terms:County: NevadaProjectName: NAWQA SACR Benchmark/ReferenceProjectLabel: SACRhbnSiteNumber: 10343500SiteName: SAGEHEN C NR TRUCKEE CANAWQAStudyUnit: SACR – Sacramento River BasinDataSource: BioDataStudyReachName: 10343500-A-SACRhbnTruckee River Watershed Council data for Sagehen Creek. Includes Truckee River Aquatic Monitors (TRAM) macroinvert data, Snapshot Day data, etc. Contact TRWC for more information about these files.Ambient data, 2000-2016: temp, DO, etc.BMI files: 2005-13 has a lot of sites in it, including a couple from Sagehen just below the station – one of Herbst’s old sites, and then a couple of years below 89. Should be obvious which ones are which.04 files: this is from the older protocol (3 subsamples per stream) and CDFW separates out the data into different files. There’s 1 Sagehen sample + others in that one.Detail metricsTaxa listSummary metrics
USDA Forest Service Stream Survey, 2002: Chris Mease, Project Director.
- Summary: download
- Map: download
- Culvert survey: Part 1 | Part 2
- Bank instability & large woody debris survey: download
- Fish survey: download
- Entrenchment, Width to Depth, Vegetation, and Temperature data: download
- Non-protocol stream survey: Part 1 | Part 2
- Pool & riffle survey: download
- Reach comments: complete | summary
- Short tributaries & headwater: download
- Habitat unit: download
Groundwater
- Use our Google Map (above) to pinpoint location of groundwater wells & transects.
- Sagehen shallow groundwater well transect data: contact Station Manager
- Sagehen deep groundwater well data: contact Station Manager
Forest
Sagehen’s eddy flux data is contributed to the AmeriFlux network.
Hi everybody,
Thanks to our collaboration with AmeriFlux (i.e. Tower 1 with EC system
is an official AMF site), most MODIS & VIIRS products (ET, PET, GPP,
NDVI, FPAR, LST etc) of Sagehen are now available in near real-time as
cutouts/subsets via the ORNL DAAC MODIS/VIIRS Fixed Sites Subsets Tool:
https://modis.ornl.gov/sites/?network=AmeriFlux&network_site id=US-SHC As an example, here are the links with maps & data download options for
the ET & GPP of tower 1 at Sagehen (note: always centered on tower
location but surrounding pixel estimates are available as well via
graphical tool):
https://modis.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/sites/site/?network=AmeriFlux &network_siteid=US-SHC& product=MOD16A2
https://modis.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/sites/site/?network=AmeriFlux &network_siteid=US-SHC& product=MOD17A2H Best,
Sebastian
Geology, soils & vegetation
Sagehen Soil ArcGIS layers; the coordinate system is NAD83. The zip file also includes a jpg file to view.
GIS layers for soil, vegetation, geology, etc. in the Tahoe National Forest, including Sagehen basin:
- “Science Assessment for the Sierra Checkerboard Initiative“;
- PSW GIS Clearinghouse, Existing vegetation data (CALVEG) by Tiles in Albers
Geologic Map of the northern Lake Tahoe-Donner Pass Region, northern Sierra Nevada, California…
- Large image
- Small image
- More info
- Photos of 2006 field work in the N. Fork of the American River.
- GIS files
- PDFs
Soil information from groundwater monitoring well drilling (summer 2009):
Sagehen plant observation data on iNaturalist
Sagehen vegetation habitat/climate change models – Erin Riordan:
Research datasets
Specific research data is available directly from investigators, or from published papers. Use our bibliography & reservations calendar to identify current & past research at Sagehen. For example, the following are a few generally useful datasets from Sagehen research:
- Forest survey data from the SPLAT research project, including trees & fuels class survey grid can be obtained from John Battles, UC Berkeley.
- American Marten survey data available from Katie Moriarty, PNW and William Zielinsky, PSW.
- Stream water & precipitation mercury data can be obtained from Xavier Fain, DRI.
- Tree sap flow data can be obtained from Joe McConnell or Adrian Harpold, DRI.
- Stream height data for Sagehen, Independence and North Fork drainages available from James Kirchner, ETH.
- Truckee River Aquatic Monitoring program (TRAM) macroinvertebrate on-going census: contact the Truckee River Watershed Council.
- Highway 89 roadkill database and camera trap images: contact Sandra Jacobson.
Birds
Biological inventory of birds in Sagehen Basin
Bird breeding status & habitat data, 1992-2015, from the Sagehen Basin Network (SBNE) Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) project:
| STATION NUMBER: 11204 STATION ID: KILN STATION NAME: Kiln Meadow LAND OWNER: AF NEAREST TOWN: Truckee LATITUDE: 39.43306 LONGITUDE: -120.26083 ELEVATION: 1975 HABITAT: montane meadow/montane riparian HISTORY OF OPERATION: 98-99 NO. OF YEARS OPERATED: 2 LOCATION CODE: SBNE SITE CODE: KILN | STATION NUMBER: 11935 STATION ID: SCRE STATION NAME: Sagehen Creek LAND OWNER: AF NEAREST TOWN: Truckee LATITUDE: 39.43 LONGITUDE: -120.24333 ELEVATION: 1945 HABITAT: wet meadow/lodgepole ecotone HISTORY OF OPERATION: 92-00,02- NO. OF YEARS OPERATED: 23 LOCATION CODE: SBNE SITE CODE: SCRE | STATION NUMBER: 11936 STATION ID: TMEA STATION NAME: Taylor Meadow LAND OWNER: AF NEAREST TOWN: Truckee LATITUDE: 39.43389 LONGITUDE: -120.23472 ELEVATION: 1926 HABITAT: dry meadow/riparian HISTORY OF OPERATION: 93-00,03-04,08-10,12- NO. OF YEARS OPERATED: 17 LOCATION CODE: SBNE SITE CODE: TMEA |
Fish
| Biological inventory of bony fishes in Sagehen Creek | |
| Sagehen Fisheries Project, 1950-1970Creel Census: info | downloadPump & Drain: info | downloadTrapping Records: downloadSagehen Planting Records: downloadYearly Sagehen Project Summary: download |
Mammals
| Biological inventory of mammals in Sagehen Basin | |
| Sagehen Calhoun Small Mammal Trap Lines: info | trapline notes | vegetation notes | templatesAerial photos & sketches: downloadHabitat photos: downloadTrapline charts & graphs: download charts | download graphsTrapline mammal data: downloadTrapline vegetation analysis: download | Download all |
BIOLOGICAL INVENTORIES (SPECIES LISTS)
amphibiansbirdsbony fishesinsects & arthropodsmammalsplantsreptiles
The Station has working species lists for the Sagehen Creek basin. Live biotic observations and crowd-sourced identification data updates these lists regularly since 2012 (sporadic observations from as early as the 1950’s). Completeness of lists varies, with plants receiving the bulk of the work to keep current.
See referenced publications on each taxa list for more detailed information regarding occurrence and distribution. See especially the sources and papers below:
- Morrison, M. L., M. P. Yoder-Williams, D. C. Erman, R. H. Barrett, A. S. Leopold, and D. A. Airola. 1985.Natural history of vertebrates of the Sagehen Creek Basin, Nevada County, California. Div. Agric. and Nat. Resour., Agric. Exp. Sta., Univ. Calif., Berkeley. 16 pp.
- Vertebrate Species with Known or Potential Occurrence in the Headwaters Basin of the North Fork American River, Placer County. Ted Beedy, 2014. North Fork observation data here.
- About the Sagehen Creek Master Plant List, Felix (2021)