Forest harvest scheduling has been modeled using deterministic and stochastic programming models. Past models seldom address explicit spatial forest management concerns under the influence of natural disturbances. In this research study, we employ multistage full recourse stochastic programming models to explore the challenges and advantages of building spatial optimization models that account ...

Key points • Regions where community forest enterprises dominate the landscape have low to non-existent deforestation, sustainable forest management, enhancement of carbon stocks, forest conservation and substantial generation of sustainable livelihoods. Corruption and deforestation are also associated with some Mexican forest communities, but these regions have created a sector with hundreds o...

Ecosystem services provided by forests (e.g., nutrient cycling) are critical in midwestern landscapes. We conducted collaborative workshops with forest landowners and management professionals using specific strategies to provide information about nutrient dynamics in forests and learn about goals/obstacles for forest management in Iowa. Preparticipation surveys assessed knowledge and goals and ...

Claim of sustainability are virtually impossible to prove but enough is known about tropical forest ecology and silviculture to protect ecosystem functions and maintain biodiversity while still deriving financial profirs from logging . Rapid improvements in long-term forest production will derive from better planning of harvesting operations and stand improvement treatments. Lack of good manage...

land between 1982 and 2007 (USDA 2009a). As average parcel size shrinks and development pressure increases land values, timber harvesting revenues alone can not keep up with the costs (i.e., property taxes) of family forest ownership (D’Amato et al. 2010) and selling all or part of one’s land becomes the primary way to generate income from it (Finley and Kittredge 2006). Forty-four percent of f...

a r t i c l e i n f o The fire-dependent shortleaf pine–bluestem grass ecosystem that existed prior to European settlement is being restored on approximately 62,700 ha in the Ouachita National Forest. The restoration effort's economic effects are not completely understood. This study will provide the Forest Service with a framework for better communicating the biological and economic impacts of...

ABSTRACT We developed a scheduling model (LMSCHED) that incorporates stream sediment and stream temperature goals into a forest planning process, allowing one to both evaluate the levels of these measures of aquatic habitat, and to set constraints regarding their upper limit. The scheduling model uses tabu search to identify feasible forest plans with respect to goals and constraints that are s...

Sustainable forest management is defined as “the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions [...].” (MCPFE, 1994). As such, forest management has to satisfy multiple and often confl...

forest property (on average < 3 ha) and fragmentation (3 plots on average) (The Slovenian Forest Service, 2005). Private forest management is further hindered by constant processes in the society which are related to an increasing number of owners due to partible inheritance and the diminishing sizes of forest property as well as a fall in the percentage of rural population, which indirectly in...