Trial of SPECTRUM and SPECTRAVISION as additional tools for scheduling timber harvesting in the Eden Management Area

Abstract

Summary To schedule regional native forest timber harvesting at a strategic level, computer modelling tools are essential in determining the amount of timber cut through space and time. An understanding of silvicultural options of a forest resource and clearly stated management objectives are prerequisites to determining scheduling plans that can be sustained over many years, that is, ‘sustained yield’. However, to determine ‘sustainable yield’ other non-timber values have to be considered. This places more demands on the modelling capabilities of the tools used. This paper advocates the use of a linear programming tool called SPECTRUM (a management prescription allocation tool) and a GIS visualisation engine called SPECTRAVISION as an addition to a suite of tools that are used by State Forest of New South Wales, for regional scheduling of timber. Data from Eden Management Area in New South Wales are used as a case study to demonstrate the scheduling capabilities of SPECTRUM using land base information represented by coupes (management units), sawlog yield data from a modified version of STANDSIM (a stand simulator) and different land allocation scenarios derived from C- PLAN (a land allocation tool). The ability of SPECTRUM to handle various silvicultural options is demonstrated.