A COMPARISON OF FORMAN AND LINEAR-PROGRAMMING APPROACHES TO TIMBER HARVEST SCHEDULING

Harvest schedules are developed and compared for two hypothetical 129 900-ha forests using the FORMAN wood supply model and linear programming. The purpose is to determine how the harvest schedules and models differ and under what conditions one model would be preferred over the other. The results clearly demonstrate that compared with FORMAN, linear programming is able to find solutions with higher harvest volumes in every case considered. Additionally, fundamental differences between the model capabilities were discovered. The FORMAN model is preferred in situations where the harvest scheduling problem is relatively simple and conforms to the activities included in the model. Linear programming is preferred when the analyst is concerned with the economics of wood supply and controlling a variety of activities and outputs. -Author