Structure-Based Management for the State of Oregon: An Application of Combinatorial Optimization Heuristics for Large-Scale Landscape Analysis

Abstract

To assist the Oregon State Board of Forestry in evaluating policy alternatives for the Northwest Oregon State Forests Management Plan and Western Oregon State Forests Habitat Conservation Plan, a 125,000 parcel, 20 period harvest scheduling model was developed to compare alternative options. The Oregon Department of Forestry’s proposed plan was based on structure-based management. Under this alternative the forest would be brought to specified spatial distribution of stand types within the earliest time while providing non-declining harvest flow, consideration of threatened and endangered species, net present value, and the Oregon Forest Practices rules. A simulated annealing heuristic using a multiple goal objective function was used to develop the harvest schedule.