Cost Impacts of Management Alternatives to Achieve Habitat Conservation Goals on State Forestlands in Western Washington

Abstract

An optimization approach to sustainable forest management that combines proactive habitat conservation practices and financial goals across an unzoned landscape outperforms a conservative, passive approach based on minimum management within large protective zones. The proactive approach simultaneously solves the land allocation and harvest scheduling problem whereas the passive approach allocatesland to restricted uses and then sequentially schedules timber harvests. Proactive management increases asset values, improves intergenerational equity, stabilizes revenue flows, and provides better habitat - especially for species requiring old forest habitat conditions. The magnitude of these differences is very large in the case tested - the development of habitat conservation plans for state trust lands in western Washington.