A case study in spatial wood supply analysis

This paper shows the effects of extraction economics and wildlife habitat values on wood supply for a 9,640 stand forest in New Brunswick. Using a spatial wood supply model developed at the University of New Brunswick, the paper quantifies and explains wood supply effects of harvest blocking, road cost and harvest adjacency delay. Eight spatial strategies test harvest scheduling based on geographic forest structure (distribution of stand developmental types and stages). Given a forest of mostly regenerating and mature developmental stages, wood supply reductions vary from 4.9% to 19.2% when compared to a convention aspatial assessment. The paper presents and explains reductions for all eight spatial strategies; but concludes that all are explained by the impacts that harvest blocking, road cost, or harvest adjacency delay have, singly, or in combination, on either mortality losses or the rate at which harvesting recycles forest area. Key words: Forest management, forest dynamics, GIS, wildlife, simulation...