Harvest Scheduling and Landscape Planning
Areas of Research Include:
1. Theoretical Development of New Harvest Scheduling Techniques
Previous research has demonstrated that there is no consensus regarding the types of scheduling process appropriate for all harvest scheduling or forest landscape planning problems. Each forest planning problem may, in fact, require a different solution approach after considering the objectives and constraints desired. Further, there is evidence that refinements within techniques can lead to improvements in the quality of forest plans. I plan to concentrate some of my effort on the development of new or improved spatial harvest scheduling techniques, either through the refinement of current methods, or through the generation of new methods. I also plan to examine how and why certain techniques perform differently when posed with increasingly complex planning problems. These techniques will be tested on standardized forest planning problem formulations to allow direct comparison with other methods. I will constantly test the hypothesis that new techniques are available to generate efficient forest plans in an increasingly complex planning environment.
2. Application of Spatial Harvest Scheduling Techniques to Forest Planning Problems
Both the U.S. Forest Service and industrial organizations are struggling with the need to explicitly recognize spatial goals in their forest planning processes. A number of studies have demonstrated techniques to account for spatial ecological or environmental goals within planning processes, and the need to continue to do so is evident. I will begin by developing a generic planning framework for the most common spatial goal facing the forest industry in the southeastern United States, green-up requirements. I will then expand this work to develop a flexible forest planning platform for accounting for spatial ecological and social goals. The application of these techniques to actual forest planning problems, and actual forested landscapes, will allow landowners to evaluate whether their current mode of operation is efficient, and to evaluate the effect of current and proposed policies (organizational and regulatory) on the management of individual land ownerships.
3. Integration of Spatial Scheduling Methodology into Large-Scale, Long-Range Forest Landscape Planning Efforts
A number of agencies in the southeastern United States, particularly the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, are interested in evaluating landscape-level management issues. A few landscape-level assessment efforts in Georgia have also included some of the major timber companies. What is lacking from these landscape assessments are projections of future conditions of the landscape under current and alternative management scenarios. I will pursue grants and other agreements that will allow the development of spatial scheduling techniques in support of landscape-level planning efforts. The key issue involves the evaluation of economic, ecological, and social goals under current and alternative policies, and the transfer of knowledge from these projections to policy makers and stakeholders.