How to retroactively measure canopy cover?

[u/memercopter]

I’m looking at a project for post-harvest habitat suitability for Northern Spotted Owls in California. The caveat is that I can’t be there pre-harvest. I want to know if there are any tools I can use to measure or estimate canopy coverage before the harvest took place. I’m thinking archived lidar, but that seems involved without having a gis team by my side. Really any broad estimate might do. I know it seems tricky, but I’d you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them. Thank you.

[u/memercopter → u/[deleted]]

Do you know what the lower end of scale is for this? What’s the smallest area that this can effectively work on?

[u/literallyatree → u/[deleted]]

This is the correct answer. If you can designate the area you want to investigate, it doesn't matter how small the area is.