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Projected economic impacts of a 16-Inch tree cutting cap for ponderosa pine forests within the greater Flagstaff urban-wildlands

Larson, Debra and Mirth, Richard (2001) Projected economic impacts of a 16-Inch tree cutting cap for ponderosa pine forests within the greater Flagstaff urban-wildlands. In: USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-22, Flagstaff, AZ.

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Abstract

The Grand Canyon Forest Partnership (GCFP), located in Flagstaff, AZ, has implemented a 16-inch diameter breast height cutting cap in the Fort Valley Restoration (Phase One) Project to secure the support of environmental organizations for urban interface forest restoration and fuels reduction projects. This paper provides insights into the economic impacts of this limitation by applying a simulated cap to realistic inventory, logging, and revenue models developed from an earlier representative project--the GCFP's 332-acre Fort Valley Research and Demonstration (R&D) project. The simulation was possible on only four of the nine R&D units, as these were the only units that had trees greater than or equal to 16-inch d.b.h. available for cutting. The simulated cutting cap resulted in implementation cost increases of 5 to 19.4 percent, harvested fiber decreases of 10 to 39 percent on a volume basis, and reductions in operator net returns ranging from 22.3 to 176 percent. The primary market for harvested material, at the time of this analysis, was low-value firewood and pallet stock that was supplemented by occasional sales to high-value users of large diameter logs. The 16-inch cap limited the operators' ability to broker logs to these large diameter users (for example, small volume viga manufacturers located in the Phoenix, AZ, metropolitan area) who would pay upward of $200 per ccf. Projections showed, however, that under more favorable market conditions, such as that of a regional pulp mill or oriented strand board plant, the operators (and consequently the GCFP) could better sustain, economically, the 16-inch cutting cap.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information: This is part of a larger document - Vance, Regina K.; Edminster, Carleton B.; Covington, W. Wallace; Blake, Julie A., comps. Ponderosa pine ecosystems restoration and conservation: steps toward stewardship; 2000 April 25-27; Flagstaff, AZ. Proceedings RMRS-P-22. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 154-160.
Keywords: ponderosa pine, ecosystem management, landscape management, restoration, conservation, fire behavior, cost effectiveness analysis, Grand Canyon, Diameter caps, Fort Valley Experiment Station, Economics, Urban Interface, Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), Environmental impact analysis, Fort Valley Restoration Project (Ariz.), Grand Canyon Forest Partnership, ERI Library
Subjects: S Agriculture > SD Forestry
Department/Unit: Research Centers > Ecological Restoration Institute
Date Deposited: 02 May 2017 22:36
URI: http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/2821

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