Fuels reduction treatments generate a large amount of biomass, most of which is small in diameter. While this material may be suited for wood products, opportunities to process this material are few in the southwestern U.S. Harvesting and transportation costs are often limiting factors. This proposal is designed to examine innovative ways to lower these costs through evaluation of in-woods decision-making regarding tree selection, residuals left on site, product suitability, and market opportunities. It will assess the economic and ecological costs and benefits associated with different harvesting practices and regionally based utilization opportunities in fuel reduction treatments. Using resource characterization in the woods to provide a simple measure of the product potential for this material and estimating the amount of various products in the resource to improve utilization processing is one focus of this work. An evaluation of the benefit of partial in-woods processing to decrease transportation and processing costs will be conducted. These two pieces of information combined will provide an assessment of whether treatments can potentially meet fuels reduction objectives at lower costs. Equally important is determining the influence of residuals left in the woods on fuel loads and how characteristics of this residue affect insect attack rates and reproductive success of pine engraver in ponderosa pine. This information will permit the development of stand treatment specific recommendations as to when seasonal creation of wood residue will, or will not, contribute to overall risk of pest problems associated with economic decisions to leave wood residue in the forest.