The Effects of Spatial Harvest Scheduling Constraints on the Value of a Medium-Sized Forest Holding in the Southeastern United States

Abstract

Abstract Forest plans related to a number of spatial harvest scheduling scenarios were developed for a medium-sized forest holding using a heuristic forest planning technique (tabu search). Green-up periods of 2 to 7 years were assessed in conjunction with the two types of adjacency constraints. The results indicate for this one property that a short green-up period (2–3 years) did not significantly affect the economic value of the forest holding studied. Longer green-up periods and smaller maximum clearcut sizes could reduce the net present value of this forest holding by as much as 5 to 15% depending on the clearcut adjacency rules used. In a validation of the heuristic solutions, we found that the best solution generated with the heuristic (for three separate problems) was within 0.25% of the integer programming solution. South. J. Appl. For. 29(4):185–193.