Forest economics research at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, to 2000.

Abstract

The contributions for over 80 years by scientists at the Pacific Northwest Research Station to developments in economic theory, economic tools, policies, and economic issues are summarized. This is a story of progressive accomplishments set against a constantly changing background of economic and social events.Keywords: Forest economics, forest policy, forest management, Pacific Northwest. Outlined here are PNW's 1 accomplishments in forest economics since the 1920s: contributions to theory, economic tools, and counsel to practicing foresters within and without the agency; and instances in which PNW's economics program made a difference to Western U.S. forestry. The format is roughly chronological. Every scientist and most publications will be mentioned, but the real intent is to portray the evolution of ideas, economic tools, and policy and economic issues to which they were applied. This is a story built on four forests. Any forester whose working life started in the 1950s at a far corner of the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) region will have worked among the last of the old growth, measuring trees 10 feet and more in diameter. By then the harvest of the second growth, seeded during logging in the last decades of the 19th century, was well underway. In 2000 it is virtually finished. The triumphs of fire and insect control, the pride of occasional bursts of intensive silviculture, the regrets of over-or under-investment in woods things, all have passed with those mellow, fulsome stands. Trees planted in the 1950s and after are now moving down the highways, 20 and 40 to the truckload. This third forest is the product of myriad economic decisions made and economic events experienced. Even to hold forest land has been an act of economic faith, subject to revision at any time. The fourth forest is outside the door, growing. What will become of it is being influenced by new economic conditions, new information, and new views of the future. That is the stuff of forest economics research.The state of the art in resource economics seemingly depends on a disorderly mix of work done to date, strong personalities, fortuitous meanders, directed effort, treks along arcane technical lines, economic pressures, and screaming land-use conflicts. This section does not deal with what we knew when but, rather, with the changing world around us over eight decades.Although federal forestry studies had been underway in the Northwest for some time, PNW was formally commissioned in 1924, a product of politics and persuasion, history and economics. The 1920s blew in as 6 billion board feet of timber blew down in western Washington, and the Capper Report 2 appeared, both of which argued for research. The windstorm of 1921 generated economic questions of utilization, marketing, and export possibilities. The 1920 Capper Report was a Forest Service response to claims of overcutting on industry lands and to a call for regulation. No less than Gifford Pinchot favored corralling cutting in private forests. William B. Greele...

Applying the Ecosystem Services Concept to Public Land Management

“…These and other factors combined to perpetuate a growing public distrust of national forest management that was manifested in an increasing number of appeals and litigation (Kessler and Salwasser 1995). Environmental appeals during the 1980s were estimated to add 15 to 20 percent to the average time necessary for preparing national forest sales of timber, and at one point the number of appeals in process exceeded 2,000 (Flora 2003). Other environmental legislation was beginning to impact public land management as well.…”

A Reexamination of the Origin of Forest Differences at a Subalpine Location in Colorado

“…The differences that Baker (1991) attributes to grazing can also be attributed to tree planting. In some areas of the Western United States it is important to investigate the tree planting history of the area in order to understand the forest dynamics for that area (Show 1924;Flora 2003;Carnus et al 2006). In many cases the documentation is not readily available.…”