steady-state+timber+harvest

The idea behind a steady state timber harvest is to manage a forested area to produced a sustainable timber yield that can be harvested on a regular cycle in perpetuity. The basic premise is that the forests are managed in such a way that the amount of timber removed in one period is replaced through the growth of the stand for the next period. The feasibility, practicability, and economic viability of achieving such a state is a subject of much debate. Note that 'sustainability' in this context only refers to the production of timber products, and does not in this case take into account the maintenance of ecosystem functioning (providing adequate water, carbon storage, wildlife habitat, diversity, and other non-timber forest resources).

There are basically two ways to implement this in our model world; either through regular re-entries into a stand to remove a portion of the growth (using either a diameter-limit cut or BDq approach), or to clearcut a new location periodically, returning to a previously cut location only when it has regrown enough to yield a worthwhile return. Either way, the frequency with which you revisit any given tile is a function of how long it takes to replace (through natural growth) what you removed. Approximate a few different approaches, and use the mouse tool you developed to see how they pan out. Once you have a strategy, try implementing it over a longer period of time, either programmatically (by scripting it). Create some output on the screen that summarizes information about the volume of timber in your stands over time and the return (both monetary and product output) from your strategy.

Start by seeing if you can maintain an output of 1000 board feet of sawtimber each year. Try scaling this up to produce 10000 board feet of sawtimber annually. When calculating the return from each harvest, try implementing a fixed operational cost to each harvest, that is just subtracted from the total valuation of the tile. Try implementing different operational costs (ie. $10 (low), $100 (about right), and $500 (expensive)). How does this affect the profitability of your plan, and how might it alter your strategy?

=More Information=

Sustainable forest management Sustainability and your forest