One of the most controversial aspects of federal and state policies aimed at protecting old-growth ecosystems has been the potential impact of job losses on local economies. A fundamental question for historically timber-dependent communities is whether these policies will result in local economic stagnation and enduring pockets of poverty. In this paper, we examine the long-run impact of chang...

By Stephen A. Barlow, Ian A. Munn, David A. Cleaves, and David L. Evans T he potential impact of urbanization on the South’s timber supply is dramatic. Between 1960 and 1990, the South’s share of the nation’s population increased from 30.7 percent to 34.4 percent (US Department of Commerce 1992). The amount of land in the South swallowed by metropolitan areas has more than doubled, from 9.8 per...

In resource accounting, shadow prices of natural resources and environmental effects should be used as the social marginal value of goods. Since it is difficult to measure shadow prices in practice, market prices are often used as proxies for shadow prices. A prerequisite for the use of these proxies is that there is an established relationship between size of the natural resource stock of inte...

Southern timber harvesting equipment and on-road vehicle costs were obtained for the years from 1967 to 1984. Average cost trends for equipment and vehicles were determined for the period. Average logging contract rates and price trends were also estimated. Comparisons indicated that equipment costs increased more than the general inflation rate and less than the prices of other industrial comm...

This article presents a Monte Carlo methodology for solving the stochastic optimal timber harvest problem modeled as a recurrent American call option. A detailed description of the proposed methodology is given, and the Monte Carlo technique is contrasted with finite difference methods typically used to find solutions of the optimal harvest problem with stochastic prices. The use of the methodo...

The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to characterize the bridge material selection decisions of highway engineers and local highway officials across the United States. State Department of Transportation engineers, private consulting engineers, and local highway officials were personally interviewed in Mississippi, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin to identify how various factors determin...

This paper analyzes socially optimal forest taxation when the government has a binding tax revenue requirement. In the Faustmann model the optimal design of forest taxation consists of non-distortionary taxes, such as site productivity tax, site value tax or profit tax. A combination of distortionary unit (or yield) tax and timber tax can also be used to collect the tax revenue in a non-distort...

The use of near-surface mounted (NSM) fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars is an interesting method for increasing the shear and flexural strength of existing timber members. This article examines the behaviour of carbon FRP (CFRP) bars in timber under direct pull-out conditions. The objective of this experimental program is to investigate the bond strength between composite bars and timber: bar...

This study was executed to determine the plant species of herbaceous cover in a skid road subjected to soil compaction due to timber skidding in a beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky.) stand. Our previous studies have shown that ground based timber skidding destroys the soils extremely, and degradations on ecosystem because of the timber skidding limit recovery and growth of plant cover on skid road...

This paper is a theoretical and empirical investigation into the impact of the structural adjustment program (SAP) on forest loss in Ghana between the period 1965–95, An optimal control model is used to derive estimable reduced form equations for forest loss, cocoa land, maize land and timber production, which are in turn functions of mainly input and output prices. Piecewise linear and switchi...