Ordered Site Access and Optimal Forest Rotation

Abstract

The ordered‐site‐access model of forest harvesting formulated for once‐and‐for‐all forests in [7] is extended to the case of ongoing forests. The economic content of the corresponding optimal harvest schedule is delineated. For an infinite harvest sequence, the optimal schedule is shown to include the classical Faustmann rotation as a special case, and the effect of net revenue functions changing with harvest is studied. For the practically more important case of planning for a finite sequence of [INLINEEQUATION] harvests, the optimal harvest schedule is determined for a Faustmann environment with limited, and unlimited harvesting capacity, and its rapid convergence to the Faustmann rotation is shown for the case of unlimited harvesting capacity. The case of harvest cost functions varying with harvest rate is discussed. The existence of a steady‐state optimal harvesting schedule (involving a pathwise uniform age distribution) for the more realistic Heaps‐Neher environment and its relation to the Faustmann rotation are analyzed. The evolution of the optimal harvest schedule for a finite harvest sequence in a Heaps‐Neher environment toward this steady‐state (Faustmann type) rotation is demonstrated.