Economic Impacts of Forest Managment Strategies on New Brunswick Crown Land

In this thesis, the economic impacts of alternative forest management strategies on New Brunswick's Crown land forests were evaluated. Business-as-usual (BAU), Intensive (INT) and Value-based (VAL) strategies were defined within a wood supply model that incorporated forest and economic indicators. Results indicated that the VAL strategy produced a marginally higher level of economic output over an 80 year planning horizon relative to the other strategies. To achieve more output, the VAL strategy required less softwood harvesting, more hardwood harvesting, more pre-commercial thinning, less operable growing stock, a liquidation of some species, and a shift toward producing a higher proportion of pulp, relative to the other strategies. Sensitivity analysis was performed on product prices and results show that the output level in the VAL strategy was most volatile. Therefore, the VAL strategy produces a number of trade-offs that need to be further discussed before such a change in strategy is made.