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An alternative approach to goal programming is described. The approach incorporates both cardinal weighting and ordinal ranking of deviation variables, and does not require apriori specification of goal target levels. Ordinal rankings are used to describe feasible and optimal policy spaces. Cardinal weightings are then adjusted through an interactive procedure until the decision makers are satisfied with the weightings and with the resulting compromise solution. The procedure is demonstrated using a hypothetical reforestation budget allocation problem.

A mathematical model was constructed and used to help plan five-year timber harvesting and delivery activities from an industrially managed public forest in Ontario. Harvest systems, harvest levels, and wood flows from compartments within the forest to various mills and delivery points were scheduled to minimize costs. The mathematical structure of the model may suggest applications to related forest planning problems. The model was useful in addressing the planning problem, and model results were used within the company's planning process. Data accuracy problems precluded assessing definitively the expected cost savings resulting from model use.

Concerns are frequently expressed within the resource management community that many of the tools or models being developed to help people manage resources aren't being used. Less clear are the reasons, but a look at the contrasts between resource management and resource science provides some clues. The disciplinary organization of scientific knowledge, compared with the general nature of management problems, contributes to the gap between science and management. Many of the difficulties that resource scientists are experiencing are shared by management scientists attempting to provide problem-solving support to managers. In fact, management scientists who are developing tools for use by managers are sometimes said to be doing research on "toy" problems because of their tendency to oversimplify the "messes" or complex systems with which managers are trying to deal. To derive tools of use in solving real problems, some resource scientists will have to be willing to study and work with resource managers in the context where problems are faced.

A system for designing timber management strategies which considers the location, construction timing, and standards of road networks is presented. The system allows the effects of alternative road networks on economic wood supplies and timber management strategies to be assessed. A geographic information system is used to update stand attributes in response to alternative road networks, prior to analysis using a linear-programming-based forest planning model. A case study illustrating the planning system is briefly reviewed and instructions for obtaining system software are provided. Key Words: timber management planning, geographic information system, spatial analysis, road network design, linear programming, wood supply analysis.