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A Geographic Information System (GIS) essentially consists of a database linked to a map. Because it has the capability of showing database information graphically on a map, GIS is ideally suited for maintaining forest resource information. The combination of this type information improves productivity and efficiency of management. As consulting foresters, Bennett & Peters has clients with forestlands ranging in size from less than 40 acres to over 1/4 million acres. The uses of GIS vary as widely as the clients’ size of ownership. For example, smaller clients may only want an occasional map of their forest tract; but larger clients use GIS to maintain practically all of their land management records.
In addition to supplying inventory summaries by ownership and management unit, our custom-programmed inventory system automatically outputs all pertinent data by individual forest "stands" creating a management database which can be accessed by our GIS and our forest management planning model and updated continuously and grown annually. Prior to the field portion of one of our management-oriented inventories, maps are created using the GIS containing current geographic information. Sources may include USGS digital quadrangle maps, Tiger files, ownership maps, survey plats, aerial photographs, satellite imagery and field notes. After remote sensing data is interpreted and stand lines drawn onto the base maps, the actual inventory plots are taken. GIS produced maps enable the cruiser to have accurate field maps and at the same time the field work is done, provide "ground truthing" for the photo interpretation or image analysis. As the field data is processed, the Forest Management Information System (FMIS) database is built and directly linked to the timber stands on the computer-generated maps through our GIS. Once linked, the FMIS/GIS database can be easily searched or queried using any criteria the manager chooses. This information can be printed in report form or identified on a map which itself can be plotted or printed. Within a few minutes a manager can search a large database with a request and have a detailed map of the areas selected. For example, a manager may want to find all loblolly pine plantations under 10 years of age that are overstocked. These requests are fed into the GIS which then finds the stands, locates them on a map and prints the map along with associated stand data. Unlike most of our computer systems, we make the FMIS database and GIS directly available to our clients. With proper computer hardware and software, our clients can quickly and efficiently access, view and print all data from their own GIS/FMIS database. Next, our GIS provides information directly to our Forest Management Planning Model (FMPM), essentially a “harvest scheduling model.” The biological portion of the FMPM "grows" each forest stand using the latest growth and yield models. Then, the financial analysis module of the FMPM "manages" the forest through time and chooses the timing of thinnings, harvest and regeneration for each stand which will maximize the net present value of the forest asset. Controlling the FMPM financial analysis are assumptions such as discount rate, inflation rate, timber product prices, real rates of change of timber product prices, management costs, regeneration costs, income tax rates, ad valorem tax rates and forest management costs. Any and all of these assumptions can be varied to fit the needs and outlook of the forest manager. After changes in any of the model's assumptions, the FMPM can again simulate management of the forest through time and re-optimize the net present value of the forest asset. In addition to changing the above-mentioned assumptions, income levels can be specified for given periods of time in the future. For example, a minimum net income may be necessary to pay distributions to investors or to meet mortgage payments. With these final restraints, the FMPM can again manage and optimize the net present value of the forest asset while satisfying the specified income needs. The output of the FMPM includes, by time period, product volumes harvested, acres regenerated, gross income, management costs, ad valorem taxes, depletion, income taxes and net cash flow. Summary information includes net present value and internal rate of return on investment. Finally, to complete the circle, the results of the FMPM is relayed back to the GIS, so that maps of stands potentially needing thinning or harvesting/regenerating can be printed for the district forester to use in the field. The forester can then return to the field to check the reasonableness of the model’s cutting recommendations. A client-dependent GIS improves the productivity of management, whether for small or large acreage, by using a combination of graphical and tabular data. There are many other current uses of GIS by our clients, some of which include the storage of all types of management information by geographical location, such as hunting and mineral leases, status of boundary lines for each tract, etc. A landowner wishing to contract GIS service from a forestry consultant should consider price, functionality, licensing and get recommendations from other landowners. Stephen W. Bennett |
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A typical application of GIS in our business begins with a management-oriented timber inventory. Bennett & Peters was one of first consulting firms in the nation to use computers to process forest inventory data. The use of computers has not only reduced the time and cost of inventories; but, more importantly, electronic data processing has allowed us to give clients more and better information. Over the years we have refined our management inventories to give the landowner and forest manager better information with which to manage forestlands. Today, our inventories include not only the traditional tables of numbers of trees and merchantable volumes by species and diameter class; but they also include land classifications by site, method of regeneration, age, stocking class, type and level of hardwood competition as well as data on site index and growth.