New Sub-Meter Canopy Height Model for Montana and CONUS — Free & Open Source

[Scott Morford]

Hi Montana GIS folks,

I'm excited to share that our group at the University of Montana has released a sub-meter canopy height model (CHM) covering all of CONUS, and it's freely available under an MIT license for any use case.

The model was built by training on NAIP imagery with lidar CHM targets, and the current release is derived primarily from 2022 and 2023 NAIP imagery.

Here's how to access it:

• Explore the data: https://naip-chm.projects.earthengine.app/view/naip-chm-a-conus-structure-model

• Earth Engine Asset: https://code.earthengine.google.com/679d951b4f49166a8e266920be53a97a

• Direct Download: https://rangeland.ntsg.umt.edu/data/naip-chm/

Want to generate CHMs for other NAIP years? Our GitHub repo includes a Google Colab notebook that makes this straightforward — no local compute or GPUs required:

https://github.com/smorf-ntsg/naip-chm?tab=readme-ov-file#usage

The model is currently undergoing peer review, and our preprint is available here:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.12.694075v1

I'd love to hear how this might be useful for your work. Feel free to reach out anytime: scott....@umontana.edu

Best,

Scott

—

Scott Morford, Ph.D.

Working Lands for Wildlife Science Team

Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group

University of Montana

406.461.4910