Ward C FEMC2007

Scenarios of Triad Zoning on a Crown License in New Brunswick

Chris Ward, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, P.O. Box 44555, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5H1, Canada, c.ward@unb.ca
Tom Beckley, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, P.O. Box 44555, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 6C2, Canada, beckley@unb.ca
Thom Erdle, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, P.O. Box 44555, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 6C2, Canada, erdle@unb.ca
David MacLean, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, P.O. Box 44555, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 6C2, Canada, macleand@unb.ca

Triad zoning results in forest management specialization where a specific and different set of values is managed for in each zone, to provide a full set of values at the forest level through the collective outcomes across all zones. Economic theory suggests that management for multiple values on every hectare of forest is inefficient; management specialization under zoning presents an opportunity to reduce this inefficiency, thereby producing a better overall forest level outcome. The criteria for assessing whether zoning is “better” must include social, economic and environmental values, and we have developed a set of forest value indicators to evaluate the performance of zoning scenarios in meeting the broad set of values held by society. Using these indicators to gauge management outcomes, we explore multiple zoning scenarios for one Crown license in New Brunswick using the linear programming formulation of the Remsoft Woodstock forest modeling software. Scenarios are based on 10 harvest level cases starting with the maximum combined softwood and hardwood harvest level, followed by nine levels, each decremented by 10% of the maximum. For each case, the harvest is constrained to equal the corresponding harvest value, and the area allocated to reserve is maximized. With these settings, multiple runs are then made where each successive run includes a 10% step-wise reduction in the area allocated to enhanced timber production zones. The resulting scenarios for each harvest case are then evaluated in terms of the chosen set of indicators. This approach to evaluating Triad zoning options addresses three important questions: what is the potential to reserve land without a reduction in harvest level? What different land-use intensities exist to do so? And, what are the effects of those land-use intensities on the forest value indicators?