An Incremental Economic Analysis of Establishing Early Successional Habitat for Biodiversity

Slayton Hazard-Daniel,Thomas Straka,Susan Loeb,Patrick Hiesl

doi:10.3390/resources6040053

Slayton Hazard-Daniel, Thomas Straka + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/resources6040053

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Journal: Resources	Publication Date: Sep 28, 2017
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Clemson University, Southern Research Station

Abstract

Early successional habitat (ESH) is an important component of natural landscapes and is crucial to maintaining biodiversity. ESH also impacts endangered species. The extent of forest disturbances resulting in ESH has been diminishing, and foresters have developed timber management regimes using standard silvicultural techniques that enhance ESH. We developed a financial framework to evaluate these ESH-enhancing forest management regimes, driven by differences in timber harvest costs and timber revenue. The economic model was applied to on-the-ground prescriptions in the Nantahala National Forest (NNF) designed to increase biodiversity and foster improved public awareness of the importance of ESH. Bats, a current conservation concern, commonly exploit ESH and were the focus of our prescriptions. The prescriptions were based on shelterwood cuts of varying patch size, spacing between the cuts, and the trail area required to move from patch to patch. The results showed that prescriptions with large patch areas were effective in increasing ESH, with minimal impact on the financial performance of timber harvesting operations. This information can be used to minimize financial losses while catering to wildlife species that prefer ESH, in addition to increasing overall biodiversity.

Highlights

Successional habitat (ESH) is an important component of natural landscapes, whether occurring naturally in grasslands and shrublands or due to disturbances within late successional forests [1]
Not utilizing the timber resulted in no associated hauling cost, but incurred an opportunity cost for foregone timber revenue of $5744.07 for prescription A and $7796.97 for prescription B
Some additional value could result from the resulting structural change to habitat, and this opportunity cost could be offset by the ecological benefits provided to wildlife and plants

Summary

Introduction

Successional habitat (ESH) is an important component of natural landscapes, whether occurring naturally in grasslands and shrublands or due to disturbances within late successional forests [1]. While these ecosystems differ in terms of vegetative composition, they all possess a prominent characteristic of ESH in that they are not dominated by tree canopies, but consist of short herbaceous and woody vegetation [1,2]. ESH is critical to maintaining the diversity of flora and fauna in deciduous forests and has a role in forest dynamics in terms of tree regeneration and the maintenance of disturbance generated plant species [5]. The importance of ESH to wildlife is especially well-documented for certain birds [8] and various mammals [9]

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