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This study was undertaken in response to concerns that the decreasing levels of funding for government tree planting cost share programs will result in significant reductions in non-industrial private tree planting efforts in the South. The purpose of this study is to quantify how the funding of various cost share programs, and market signals interact and affect the level of private tree planting. The results indicate that the ACP, CRP, and Soil Bank programs have been more influential than the FIP, FRM, FSP, SIP, and State run subsidy programs. Reductions in the CRP funding will result in less tree planting; while it is not clear that funding reductions in FIP, or other programs targeted toward reforestation after harvest, will have a negative impact on tree planting levels. Master of Science

The purpose of this thesis is to examine what motivates nonindustrial private forest landowners to accept bids of various levels for harvesting. Through the use of a survey we specifically consider what preferences and landowner characteristics effect these decisions. Landowners were randomly selected from counties in Southwest Virginia. The participants were presented a payment table in which they were asked to indicate the level of certainty with which they would accept bids of various levels for their timber. The information obtained for the survey was used in a LOGIT model to examine which variables were most important both in determining the certainty respondents attached to different bid levels, and the likelihood of accepting a bid of any size. Our most important results show that factors such as bequest motives, tract size, absentee status, and environmental preferences influence the bid acceptance decision for landowners in the sample. Master of Science

Forest property taxes play an integral role when private landowners make land use and management decisions. Economists often suggest that taxes should be neutral, thus causing no change in land use or management decisions compared to the pre-tax condition. The traditional ad valorem property tax has long been criticized, particularly as it pertains to forestry, because of its distortionary properties and inherent bias against long-rotation investments. Alternatives to the traditional forest property tax include current use assessment, productivity, yield, and site value taxes. The site value tax is a property tax on the market value of bare land only, exempting improvements. In theory, the site value tax has been championed as the only neutral property tax alternative; however, in actual application, a forest site value tax may prove to be non-neutral and, by certain measures, inequitable. The degree of the tax's neutrality can be linked to the method of tax administration and the ability of assessors to accurately determine bare land market values for a wide range of site qualities. This paper reviews literature on forest property tax alternatives and theoretically examines the efficiency of an applied forest site value tax. The adequacy and equity of a proposed forest site value tax are examined in detail and compared for two study areas: Western Oregon and Alabama; in light of local governmental budget constraints. Although the site value tax may represent a less-distortional vehicle for collecting local taxes, it is unlikely to be politically or administratively feasible. Also, given the existence of other distortions in the economy, a site value tax may not prove to be the most efficient tax in application, despite its neutral properties. Master of Science

This study compares financially optimal uneven-aged and even-aged silvicultural regimes of loblolly pine (Pinus Taeda). Uneven-aged regimes which maximize net present value (NPV) are found by quantifying the effects of diameter distribution (Q factor), maximum diameter, cutting cycle, and residual basal area on NPV. For the benchmark inputs, the regime yielding the highest NPV had a maximum diameter of 12 inches, residual basal area of 45 ft²/acre, and a cutting cycle of 11 years. Financially optimal even-aged regimes are taken from published literature of even-aged silviculture. Even-aged and uneven-aged silvicultural regimes are simulated starting from, 1) bare land, 2) a balanced uneven-aged loblolly pine stand, and 3) a mature even-aged loblolly pine stand. For the three starting conditions and selected benchmark variable values, simulation of even-aged silviculture yields NPVs of $877, $2,152 and $3,400 per acre and simulation of uneven-aged silviculture yields NPVs of $644, $2,084, and $2,569 per acre. Sensitivity analysis shows, for the levels of the variables tested, that even-aged silviculture yields higher NPVs than uneven-aged silviculture when starting from bare land or from a mature even-aged stand. When starting from an uneven-aged stand, for the variable values tested, uneven and even-aged silviculture are financially very competitive. Aside from the aesthetic benefits of avoiding clearcutting under uneven-aged silviculture, non-timber considerations between loblolly pine silvicultural systems are not well documented. Resource professionals hold opinions often in direct conflict with each other regarding the non-timber costs and benefits of even-aged and uneven-aged silviculture when considering wildlife, soil and water, and catastrophic damage events. Master of Science

This study examines multiple destination recreation trips and the economic valuation of recreation sites using the travel cost method. One common assumption of the travel cost method is that all travel costs incurred by a visitor are exclusively for a trip to a single site. However, this assumption is often invalid, particularly in the eastern United States where there are numerous recreation areas close to large urban populations. Few researchers have attempted to overcome the difficulty of incorporating multiple destination trips into the travel cost method. Those researchers that have proposed methods have not provided a definitive guideline for how to account for multiple destination trips in the travel cost method, and have not compared their methods. This study proposes a simple model to assist in understanding the varying suggestions by researchers who have attempted to incorporate multiple destination trips into travel cost analyses. The difficulty of defining a recreation good or service, the identification of recreation substitutes, and possible decision processes used by individuals to identify recreation trip destinations are also discussed. Data collected at Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, are used in a zonal travel cost model to estimate the consumers' surplus associated with on-site recreation use at the Park, and to compare proposed methods for handling multiple destination trips. The results of this study show that the travel cost method is sensitive to assumptions about multiple destination visitors, as well as which visitors are included in travel cost analyses. Consumers' surplus estimates ranged from $38 to $8249 per visitor, depending on the assumptions about multiple destination trips, and which visitors were included in the analyses. The results of this study suggest that the travel cost method can be used as an information system, rather than as a method to determine a single estimate of recreation value in monetary terms. The travel cost method is capable of providing a manager with information about relative magnitudes of willingness to pay for a resource by a variety of visitor groups. By varying the assumptions about visitors to the site, a manager can determine a range of consumers' surplus estimates, which may be more useful than a single estimate, to better assist in management decisions regarding the mixture of resources desired by individuals. Ph. D.

This study examines effects of unpredictable price fluctuations and possible catastrophic losses on the optimal site preparation intensity of un thinned loblolly pine plantations under the assumption of lisk aversion. It concentrates exclusively on financial motives and does not take non-market values and portfolio considerations into account. The results should be interpreted with these limitations in mind. Two approaches are taken to compare site preparation intensities: a quasideterministic approach, where expected cash flows are discounted with risk-adjusted discount rates, and a stochastic approach, where probability functions of cash flows are used to maximize expected utility from net present values. The stochastic approach is further divided into non-adaptive scenarios and adaptive scenarios, where the investor can gather additional price information during the life of a stand to optimize the harvest decision. The adaptive management problem is solved with stochastic dynamic programming. For each possible harvest age, an optimal reservation price below which the forest landowner should not sell the stumpage is calculated. The study shows that the use of a single risk-adjusted discount rate is generally inadequate to compare different management intensities. The stochastic approaches reveal that the optimal management intensity depends on the degree of risk aversion, with increasing risk aversion leading to a lower intensity level. Given the possibility of catastrophic losses, the adoption of a feedback harvesting policy strengthens the already dominant influence of risk aversion and does not generally lead to an increase in management intensity. The study's results suggest that even if the landowner is managing the forest solely for financial reasons, some of the reluctance to invest in intensive forestry may not indicate a lack of interest or information but simply an economic reaction to risk, especially in regions with a high potential danger of catastrophic losses. Ph. D.

The recent disappearance of unpreserved Civil War battlefield sites under the press of private development has initiated new nation-wide preservation efforts of remaining unpreserved battlefield sites by both the public and private sectors. However, preservation efforts of Civil War sites are encumbered when little or no market incentive exists for private landowners to resist the more remunerative rewards of commercial development. This study quantifies the direct, indirect, and induced distributional economic impacts of battlefield preservation on local economies surrounding selected Civil War battlefield sites located in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Distributional analyses examine the changes in economic activity (e.g., employment and personal income) within a region, and help to document the economic feasibility of battlefield preservation. Both private and government ownership and development of battlefield sites are considered. The study results indicate that preserving Civil War battlefields can have positive distributional economic impacts on the local economy, but whether or not these impacts justify battlefield preservation by the public or private sector is not established in this study. Distributional impacts are only one type of economic benefit that a battlefield park may contribute to the local economy. The nonmarket value of battlefield parks may provide more benefits to society than the market value of parks, and should be considered in the decision to preserve Civil War battlefields. Master of Science

The survey of medium-to-large forest industry firms across the South found 11,215 landowners enrolled in formal industrial landowner assistance programs in 1989. LAPs appeal to landowners with relatively large holdings who normally have financial returns as a part of their objectives. The forest industry has encouraged this group of owners to participate because of the efficiency in managing large tracts. The average LAP tract size of 428 acres is much larger than the average southern NIPF holding of 47 acres by a factor of ten (Birch et al. 1982). The forest industry enrolled 4,798,274 acres in their LAPs in 1989. Most firms indicated that they planned to increase the size of their LAPs by a total of 1,094,000 acres (23%) over the next five years. The popularity of LAPs in the forest industry appears to be based primarily upon their reliability and cost in comparison to other timber supply strategies (i.e., fee land, leased land, and the open market). Over half (53%) of the firms reported that they had successfully purchased at least 90 percent of the desired timber put up for sale in their LAPs. In case studies of three company programs, a capital budgeting analysis showed that the LAP was the least costly alternative for one firm and that the open market was the least costly timber supply strategy, followed closely by LAPs, for two firms. The LAP was the least costly strategy for Company C primarily because the probability of procuring timber in the LAP (0.95) was much greater than the probability of procurement on the open market (0.30). Since more than half of the surveyed firms were successful in purchasing a substantial part (90%) of the desired timber offered for sale in their LAPs, these results suggest that firms which operate in areas of heavy competition for timber, with correspondingly low probabilities of procurement success on the open market, may find LAPs to be their least expensive timber supply strategy. Master of Science

Since the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act and the National Forest Management Act, the Forest Service has been required to give individuals and organizations access to the decision-making process. However, the Forest Service has been confronted with a greater than anticipated level of dissatisfaction with the Land Management Plans. Because the appeals of the plans are an expense to the Forest Service, both in monetary terms and the frustration which has been generated, the relationship between the participation process and the number of appeals has. come under question. This study proposes that, because public participation and the resolution of appeals are expenses to the Forest Service, the relationship between the two should be analyzed in a cost-benefit analysis framework. However, before an optimal level of public participation can be determined, the relationship between public participation and conflict must be analyzed. Through survey and econometric techniques, the public participation process which occurred during round one of planning and the significance of a number of variables to the probability for conflict were observed. The study described the public participation process which occurred on the National Forests. The results suggest a positive relationship between public participation and the number of existing appeals. Further research is needed, however, to determine the number of appeals which were either avoided or generated due to the public participation process. Master of Science

Two programs, HAPWED (Hardwoods And Potential Wood-using Enterprises Database) and FIST (Facility Investment Spreadsheet Template) were developed. HAPWED is designed to analyze the feasibility of investments in wood processing facilities with respect to the economic supply of timber. The program requires user supplied databases of timber inventory, mill requirements, and product requirements. The program utilizes CONDOR III database manager. FIST is a spreadsheet template written for SuperCalc IV. It calculates the net present value, internal rate of return, and the undiscounted payback period using estimates of annual cash flows supplied by the user. Timber inventory, mill, and product databases were developed for demonstration. Eight facilities were tested for economic feasibility using FIST, two had positive NPV's (a conventional sawmill and a laminated veneer lumber mill). Analyses conducted using HAPWED indicated sufficient volume in Southwest Virginia to supply both mills from three different supply points using 50-mile supply radii. Master of Science

Thinning from above and below were compared using an economic optimizing dynamic program, FORTE (Arthaud 1986). Economically optimal (net present value maximizing) thinning regime and rotation age were determined for benchmark economic and model inputs. Sensitivity of net present value and optimal management regime were tested for varying interest rates (6 or 8%), site indexes (50, 60 and 70, base 25 years), fixed and variable thinning costs, planting density (440, 680 and 910 trees per acre), stumpage prices and thinning type. Given the same assumptions, thinning from below consistently provided the higher net present value for the optimal regime than thinning from above. For the benchmark assumptions, both thinning types had two thinnings in their optimal regimes. Optimal rotation age and thinning timings occur later when thinning from above. Both thinning types provided higher net present values than not thinning under all conditions except pulpwood management. Master of Science