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The goal of the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP)-funded project "Enhancing Western Managers' Knowledge and Use of Available Economic and Financial Biomass Information and Tools" was to provide a synthesis of available information products to help managers understand and deal with the economic and financial aspects of woody biomass removal as a component of fire hazard and/or fuel reduction treatments.

The project resulted in "Forestry-based biomass economic and financial information and tools: An annotated bibliography" - a synthesis of the body of economic and financial biomass information, literature, models, tools, databases, and other information available to land managers in the western United States. Ideally, when information about innovative operational biomass handling, removal, and/or utilization practices and techniques is documented and shared, land managers may better plan and implement biomass removal treatments. The information contained in this bibliography fills the gaps between existing information and tools and managers’ awareness of and ability to use those tools and information to promote biomass utilization in place of in-woods burning. This bibliography may also help managers address the issues and problems discussed above.

The cooperators in this project used their extensive experience related to timber and woody biomass utilization in the west, and worked closely with federal land managers regarding timber flow, milling capacity, treatment and logging costs, transportation costs, wood use, and biomass availability and utilization, to gather and synthesize information products that can answer questions about the economic and financial effects of biomass removal.

Contact

Dan Loeffler, Economist
University of Montana
dan.loeffler@mso.umt.edu


Funding

JFSP logo

Rocky Mountain Research Station
Bureau of Business and Economic Research
University of Montana
USFS Forest Products Laboratory
FRAMES
College of Forestry and Conservation