Tables and Figures

Abstract

Forest management practices are prescribed to satisfy sustainable landowner goals and achieve stand or property level objectives. In forest management, individual trees, stands, and forests each have different kinds of benefits and values. The most easily recognized is the revenue generated when timber is harvested. Activities designed to achieve many management objectives can be costly and may not be undertaken by the landowner unless there is an offsetting revenue stream. Timber revenue creates an opportunity to achieve objectives. The economic benefits extend to the landowner, the logger, the mills, the local communities that receive tax revenue and the indirect benefits of forest industry employees spending their wages in the community. Protecting both short-term and long-term values and economic benefits ensures the sustainability of the forest industry in Wisconsin. This chapter will discuss factors that affect forest management including economic rotation age, economic considerations of even versus uneven aged management, product considerations, access to markets, non-timber forest resources, and the forestry value chain. The chapter is designed as an introduction to basic forest economic concepts, with additional resources listed in the reference section.