Southern Forest Resource Assessment The suggestions or concerns below were submitted in response to preliminary assessment questions but did not directly fit with a particular question--for details see our Public Input or Methods pages

General Comments--Social/Economic Factors Socio-Economic Impacts - We suggest that you use the framework put together by Ernie Neimi for South East Forest Project (SEFP). The study should address the socio-economic impacts of intensive forest extraction and corporate forest ownership, tourism/recreation tradeoffs, economic costs of water quality degradation, non-market values of standing forests, the costs to taxpayers via subsidies to traffic, road degradation etc.). Any assessment of the economy's response to changes in timber-production levels should reflect a realistic appraisal of the relative importance of the services and commodities derived from the forest and acknowledge the economy's dynamic character. Application of the economic-base model that consider timber production as fundamentally more important to the economy than the services derived from southern forests should be abandoned. The assessment needs to give a realistic look at the impacts forestry has on the economy on both a local, sub-regional and regional level. The assessment may need to focus on small rural areas in some cases to get a realistic impact which changes in policy could have. Analysis of the use of taxpayers' monies to support the forest-products industry by construction and maintenance of federal, state, and local highways. With the growing demand on forests for products and services, what are the alternatives to meeting these demands? How can landowners determine if management plan is appropriate? Land use planning will continue to be a greater and greater “growth” tool, as well as to permit wider and wider mix of uses. Foresters and planners need to learn to talk to each other. Social benefits of privately owned forests (esp. NIPF) Social benefits to public of privately owned forests, e.g., storm water control, aesthetics. Wants estimate of value of recreation benefits that are provided by private landowners but receive no compensation. What amount is taxed for providing those benefits? Evaluate economic drivers that cause land use change. Economic forces that made changes in land uses years ago. Add tax laws are subgroup for study on economic trends. Which states have any process in place for pre-notification of which stands are to be cut? How can public access this information? Who collects/gets this information? Some type of dynamic or multidimensional “basin wide” planning strategy needs to be started and since we have no model to go by, then mistakes will be made, but we should try. Question as revised in response to these comments Previous Question | Next Question Public Input Home | Methods | Assessment Home

  modified: 1-MAR-2000
  webmaster: John M. Pye