Cataloging Information
Fuel Treatments & Effects
This paper evaluated potential forest product market impacts in the U.S. West of increases in the supply of wood from thinnings to reduce fire hazard. Evaluations are done using the Fuel Treatment Market-West model for a set of hypothetical fuel treatment scenarios, which include stand-density-index (SDI) and thin-from-below (TFB) treatment regimes at alternative levels of harvest administrative fees or subsidies. Results show that even with industry bearing the assumed administrative costs of thinning programs, substantial volumes of wood could be thinned, but more so in coastal regions than inland regions of the West. Also, replacing administrative fee assumptions with hypothetical removal subsidies increases the proportion of harvestable wood removed; a sensitivity observed primarily in the inland regions. Results show also that wood removals from fuel treatment programs could displace a large fraction of timber supply from conventional sources, reducing regional timber harvest and timber revenues that would otherwise be projected to increase for state and private timberland managers in the West. The SDI thinning regime can result in potential gains in forest product consumer surplus that more than offset losses in timber producer surplus, resulting in positive net market welfare, while the TFB regime can produce the opposite result (negative net market welfare).