Social versus Biophysical Availability of Wood in the Northern United States

Butler, Brett J.; Ma, Zhao; Kittredge, David B.; Catanzaro, Paul

doi:10.1093/njaf/27.4.151

Cited by 50 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Our analyses of the probability of logging include all plots on forest lands that are not recorded by the U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) as legally reserved from logging. But there is clearly a subset of this ''unreserved'' forest land that is effectively unavailable for harvest because of a wide range of physical, social, and economic constraints (Ward et al 2005, Butler et al 2010, Buchholz et al 2011). These constraints include physical factors such as steep slopes, economic factors such as distance from roads and parcelization, and social factors due to landowner interests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional variation in forest harvest regimes in the northeastern United States

Canham

Rogers

Buchholz

2013

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. Logging is a larger cause of adult tree mortality in northeastern U.S. forests than all other causes of mortality combined. We used Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data to develop statistical models to quantify three different aspects of aggregate regional forest harvest regimes: (1) the annual probability that a plot is logged, as a function of total aboveground tree biomass, (2) the fraction of adult tree basal area removed if a plot was logged, and (3) the probability that an individual tree within a plot was removed, as a function of the fraction of basal area removed at the plot level, the species of tree, and its size. Results confirm that relatively frequent partial harvesting dominates the logging regimes, but with significant variation among different parts of the region and different forest types. The harvest regimes have similarities with natural disturbance regimes in imposing spatially and temporally dynamic mortality that varies predictably as a function of stand structure as well as tree species and size.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional variation in forest harvest regimes in the northeastern United States

Canham

Rogers

Buchholz

2013

Ecological Applications

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“…This is recognized in a growing number of studies [2,12,[16][17][18]. Different constraints, often related to forest ownership, limits the potential supply of wood [12,20,63]. By incorporating different forest owner management strategies in our projections, our study shows the effect of such owner-related constraints (i.e., by comparing Intensive_Short_GLOBAL and Current_GLOBAL).…”

Section: Projection Results With Possible Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Combining Climate Change Mitigation Scenarios with Current Forest Owner Behavior: A Scenario Study from a Region in Southern Sweden

Lodin

Eriksson

Forsell

et al. 2020

Forests

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This study investigates the need for change of current forest management approaches in a southern Swedish region within the context of future climate change mitigation through empirically derived projections, rather than forest management according to silvicultural guidelines. Scenarios indicate that climate change mitigation will increase global wood demand. This might call for adjustments of well-established management approaches. This study investigates to what extent increasing wood demands in three climate change mitigation scenarios can be satisfied with current forest management approaches of different intensities in a southern Swedish region. Forest management practices in Kronoberg County were mapped through interviews, statistics, and desk research and were translated into five different management strategies with different intensities regulating management at the property level. The consequences of current practices, as well as their intensification, were analyzed with the Heureka Planwise forest planning system in combination with a specially developed forest owner decision simulator. Projections were done over a 100-year period under three climate change mitigation scenarios developed with the Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIUM). Current management practices could meet scenario demands during the first 20 years. This was followed by a shortage of wood during two periods in all scenarios unless rotations were reduced. In a longer timeframe, the wood demands were projected to be easily satisfied in the less ambitious climate change mitigation scenarios. In contrast, the demand in the ambitious mitigation scenario could not be met with current management practices, not even if all owners managed their production forests at the intensive extreme of current management approaches. The climate change mitigation scenarios provide very different trajectories with respect to future drivers of forest management. Our results indicate that with less ambitious mitigation efforts, the relatively intensive practices in the study region can be softened while ambitious mitigation might push for further intensification.

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“…There are clearly many other factors that influence landowner decisions whether to harvest, and with what intensity or silvicultural system (Butler et al 2010). We tested a number of alternate models in which terms in Eqs.…”

Section: Analysis Of Regional Variation In Forest Harvest Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timber harvest as the predominant disturbance regime in northeastern U.S. forests: effects of harvest intensification

et al. 2018

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Harvesting is the leading cause of adult tree mortality in forests of the northeastern United States. While current rates of timber harvest are generally sustainable, there is considerable pressure to increase the contribution of forest biomass to meet renewable energy goals. We estimated current harvest regimes for different forest types and regions across the U.S. states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine using data from the U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis Program. We implemented the harvest regimes in SORTIE‐ND, an individual‐based model of forest dynamics, and simulated the effects of current harvest regimes and five additional harvest scenarios that varied by harvest frequency and intensity over 150 yr. The best statistical model for the harvest regime described the annual probability of harvest as a function of forest type/region, total plot basal area, and distance to the nearest improved road. Forests were predicted to increase in adult aboveground biomass in all harvest scenarios in all forest type and region combinations. The magnitude of the increase, however, varied dramatically—increasing from 3% to 120% above current landscape averages as harvest frequency and intensity decreased. The variation can be largely explained by the disproportionately high harvest rates estimated for Maine as compared with the rest of the region. Despite steady biomass accumulation across the landscape, stands that exhibited old‐growth characteristics (defined as ≥300 metric tons of biomass/hectare) were rare (8% or less of stands). Intensified harvest regimes had little effect on species composition due to widespread partial harvesting in all scenarios, resulting in dominance by late‐successional species over time. Our analyses indicate that forest biomass can represent a sustainable, if small, component of renewable energy portfolios in the region, although there are tradeoffs between carbon sequestration in forest biomass and sustainable feedstock supply. Integrating harvest regimes into a disturbance theory framework is critical to understanding the dynamics of forested landscapes, especially given the predominance of logging as a disturbance agent and the increasing pressure to meet renewable energy needs.

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Social versus Biophysical Availability of Wood in the Northern United States

Cited by 50 publications

References 28 publications

Regional variation in forest harvest regimes in the northeastern United States

Regional variation in forest harvest regimes in the northeastern United States

Combining Climate Change Mitigation Scenarios with Current Forest Owner Behavior: A Scenario Study from a Region in Southern Sweden

Timber harvest as the predominant disturbance regime in northeastern U.S. forests: effects of harvest intensification

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