Jay Sullivan

Econometric analyses of nonindustrial forest landowners: Is there anything left to study?

Abstract In this paper we review recent econometric studies focusing on how nonindustrial private forest landowners make decisions. We use our synthesis of previous work and a discussion of emerging problems involving these landowners as motivation for future research. The majority of research undertaken prior to the late 1980s involved determining variables affecting reforestation or harvesting decisions. In the past decade, researchers have studied a broader set of issues, including the interrelationship between nontimber activities and other important decisions, such as bequests, examination of how landowner type and preferences affects decision making, and incorporation of landowner level responses into spatial landscape models. Using these trends as motivation, we end by proposing several new research directions. These include characterizing landowner reservation prices for various activities as a way of assessing market participation, evaluating the importance of adjacent landowners to a given landowners behavior, investigating the substitution between various types of land use decisions, continuing to integrate landowner-level data into spatial landscape models, and broadening our understanding of institutional arrangements and landowner willingness to enter evaluating informational asymmetries, into such arrangements.

Decisions nonindustrial forest landowners make: an empirical examination

Abstract Our purpose is to estimate a model of non-industrial forest landowner behavior that considers certain types of behavior that have escaped discussion and rigorous investigation in the literature, yet which are critical to future policy making. Our focus on the many different but related decisions landowners make broadens the typical understanding of landowner behavior to show how bequest motives, debt and participation in non-timber activities, and harvesting decisions are interrelated and dependent on landowner preferences, market, and land characteristics.

Public participation and appeals of forest service plans—An empirical examination

Abstract The National Forest Management Act requires the Forest Service to give individuals and organizations access to the planning process. Due to the greater than anticipated level of dissatisfaction with the land management plans, the role of public participation in the planning process has been questioned. The conflict experienced results from disagreement between individuals, interest groups, and the Forest Service about proposed management actions, about how the decisions were made, and fundamental beliefs about what actions are appropriate on public lands. We obtained information about the public participation activity conducted by the Forest Service during development of 61 forest land management plans and about the appeals of these plans. To examine the relationship between public participation and conflict in Forest Service planning (measured in terms of forest plan appeals), we hypothesize conflict to be a function of public participation effort, the extent to which publics perceived their con...

Valuing high altitude spruce-fir forest improvements: importance of forest condition and recreation activity

Abstract High altitude spruce fir forests are typical around the world and are often subjected to multiple forms of recreational use. In this paper, we use household and recreation group data for a spruce fir forest high in the Appalachian Mountains of the U. S. to evaluate the benefits from forest protection (i. e., from improving the forest condition). Our benefits estimation procedures use the referendum-type, contingent valuation (CV) approach of Cameron (1988). We modify the usual practice of obtaining a single willingness-to-pay (WTP) value by using alternative questionnaire scenarios and conducting tests to examine i) household and recreation group value sensitivity to forest condition, and ii) recreation group differences in WTP for forest protection. A first sample of southeastern U. S. households was asked to value a forest protection program for a spruce-fir forest showing no impact from insect disturbance or atmospheric deposition. The second sample was asked to value a protection program for a forest already experiencing impact from insect infestation and air pollution. Logit analysis of the two samples revealed no statistically significant difference in household WTP between the two forest protection programs. Further analysis indicated that consumptive forest users (i. e., hunters and anglers) held forest protection values that were sensitive to a change forest condition, while nonconsumptive forest users (i. e., campers and hikers) held values that were insensitive to the same condition change. Recreation group comparisons revealed that consumptive forest users also held lower values for forest protection than nonconsumptive recreationists. These results demonstrate the importance of estimating public values for forest protection in terms of heterogeneous groups rather than as a homogeneous whole.

The Social Costs of Mineland Restoration

A model of mineland restoration is presented to show the wedge between mine operator and social planner decisions and social costs of current instruments. We find, first, mine operator efforts may not match socially optimal levels and consequently generate relatively high social costs, second, social costs can be reduced using a bond that targets eventual site factors and land rent generation, and, third, in general, social costs may not be eliminated fully at bond levels that still encourage the mine operator to choose forest over grassland as a postmining use. This suggests greater scope for command- and control-based regulation. (JEL Q23, Q28)

Harvest scheduling with spatial wildlife constraints: An empirical examination of tradeoffs

The impact of imposing spatial wildlife constraints on long-range timber management schedules is examined for a public forest in northern Virginia under varying levels of a wildlife habitat constraint. Linear programming-based timber management scheduling models are solved using (1) standard linear programming, (2) mixed-integer programming with computer-determined stand allocations, and (3) mixed-integer programming with predetermined stand allocations in order to determine the extent to which the failure to consider explicitly the spatial aspects of a forest management problem with wildlife concerns may lead to an overestimation of timber production capacity. Findings indicate that present net value is overestimated by 1·8% to 21·4% and annual sawtimber harvest volume is overestimated by 2·6% to 13·5% when the standard linear programming approach is used.

Optimal forest harvest decisions: A stochastic dynamic programming approach

Abstract A method is presented for determining optimal economic strategies for density management in loblolly pine stands in the southern United States. A stochastic dynamic programming model employs a price state transition matrix constructed using time-series data for National Forest pine stumpage in the South. The model also incorporates WTHIN, a pine growth and yield simulator widely used in the South to support economic analyses of stand management alternatives. Results indicate that optimal net present values associated with management strategies determined for the stochastic model (relative to a deterministic equivalent) are higher due to differences in the thinning and final harvest decisions recommended by the two models.

Private and social costs of surface mine reforestation performance criteria.

We study the potentially unnecessary costs imposed by strict performance standards for forest restoration of surface coal mines in the Appalachian region under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) that can vary widely across states. Both the unnecessary private costs to the mine operator and costs to society (social costs) are reported for two performance standards, a ground cover requirement, and a seedling survival target. These standards are examined using numerical analyses under a range of site productivity class and market conditions. We show that a strict (90%) ground cover standard may produce an unnecessary private cost of more than

RESTORING SUSTAINABLE FORESTS ON APPALACHIAN MINED LANDS FOR WOOD PRODUCTS, RENEWABLE ENERGY, CARBON SEQUESTRATION, AND OTHER ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

700/ha and a social cost ranging from

Productivity and costs of utilizing small-diameter stems in a biomass-only harvest

428/ha to