Multi-scale reference conditions in an interior pine-dominated landscape in northeastern California

•Crown area of these stands were open (mean crown area=25 percent).•Small tree densities were more variable and highly skewed than larger trees.•Trees classed as mature or over mature dominated crown area.•Variability the landscape generally diminished as scale of the area increased. A plot-based census was conducted of trees >8.9cm in breast height diameter in a 4000ha forest in northeastern California in 1933 and 1934, prior to any harvest activity. The trees were tallied by size class and species on contiguous plots specified to be 1.01ha in size, although some plots had a forested area less than this specification due to natural openings in the forest. In general, variability in all metrics declined as scale increased across a range from 1ha to 244ha, although much of this variability was in the tails; the inner quartile range appeared to be more stable, particularly so for crown area. Although metrics were derived at a smaller scale (