Landscape Management System

Objective

Develop a computer model for simulating alternative forest management scenarios across stands and through time.

Solution

The Landscape Management System (LMS), a computer program, facilitates implementation of this approach by integrating forest inventories, spatial information, growth models, visualization, summarization, and analysis. A case study with three scenarios — no harvest, clearcut, and thinning — exposes the complex tradeoffs inherent in forest management and highlights the need for comparative analysis tools.