Economic aspects of thinning and harvest for forest health improvement in Eastern Oregon and Washington

Management activities that affect forest health and productivity in eastern Oregon and Washington, USA are driven by social, political, and economic processes. Economic feasibility is important in determining the extent to which various treatments proposed to improve forest health will actually be applied. Three socioeconomic institutions create incentives that are important determinants: markets, land uses, and the processing industry. We have extensive information on timber markets, and land uses have been studied at broad scales. Thinning undertaken for forest health improvement provides mostly small-diameter and dead material, but markets for products from small and dead logs are limited. Harvesting and manufacturing costs, resource characteristics, and lumber prices influence the way timber is processed (i.e., what products are made); design of timber sales (i.e., amount and size of raw materials offered) influences harvest cost. Processing equipment that scans logs and processes them according to shape can greatly improve product yield. Decision tools that incorporate these factors into financial evaluations can assist in harvest and other treatment decisions.