Spatial Forest Planning: To Adopt, or Not to Adopt?

Habitat fragmentation, the size of harvest units, the cumulative effects of activities, and other forest management issues are prompting a new planning approach focusing on the spatial juxtaposition of forestry activities. Spatial forest planning involves mathematical programming techniques to incorporate both commodity and noncommodity goals with spatial aspects into a forest plan. Among the factors that encourage spatial forest planning are regulations and voluntary guidelines on the patterns of harvest units and wildlife habitat, the desirability of using forestland efficiently to meet various goals, and the need to evaluate and schedule activities across multiple ownerships in landscape-level plans. Factors that discourage its adoption include technological, financial, and personnel hurdles, as well as insufficient data with which to inform the models.