| The Rural Technology Initiative: Computer Technology for Tomorrow's Forests Today | ||||||||||||||||
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The Rural Technology Initiative: Computer Technology for Tomorrow's Forests Today The disparity in personal income between rural Washington timber communities and urban areas increased by 40 percent over the last 17 years and is expected to widen further with new requirements to protect salmon habitat. While urban areas are growing with new technologies, rural areas are hampered by difficulties in adopting new technologies. However, the ability to manage forests for increasingly complex wood products and environmental values is extremely sensitive to technology. The basic scientific knowledge needed to manage forests is far ahead of the capacity to convert the knowledge to useable technologies, to make the technologies accessible to rural areas and to train people to use the technologies. There is need for a network and service system of trainers and users with a focus on access and communication between technologies and rural people. In January 2000, the University of Washington College of Forest Resources (UWCFR), in conjunction with Washington State University Department of Natural Resource Sciences received funding from the USDA Forest Service to create the Rural Technology Initiative (RTI). Professor Bruce Lippke (UWCFR) was selected as the RTI director. A rural advisory board was created to guide RTI priorities, and staff was assembled to undertake forestry technology research, development and transfer. RTI cooperates with federal conservation programs, state stewardship programs, county-assisted forestry programs and cooperative extension programs to promote better technology in rural areas for managing forests for an increased array of timber products and environmental values in support of local communities. Research Priorities Include: Training Currently Available: It is the intention of the Rural Technology Initiative to build a bridge between academia and rural communities to provide sophisticated technical tools to forest managers while enhancing communication from the field to the university to incorporate professional knowledge into institutional research. Integrated and reciprocal partnerships result that empower forestry professionals and landowners with better tools and information to assess the complex tradeoffs associated with today's resource management challenges. Larry Mason is project coordinator for the Rural Technology Initiative, Seattle, Wash. For additional information, contact RTI at 206-616-3218, rti@u.washington.edu, www.ruraltech.org. Companion Piece to Larry Mason's Article RTI Case Studies Demonstrate Computer Technology and Economic Impacts By Kevin Zobrist Today's forestry problems are complex. Management targets are often a mixture of public and private values that sometimes are in conflict with one another. Forest managers struggle to find their best management options and technology can help. Washington's new "Forests and Fish" rules are a case in point, and the Rural Technology Initiative has developed numerous case studies that assess regulatory impacts on landowners. As a research assistant for RTI, I used spreadsheet analysis combined with growth and yield simulations to examine the economic implications of Washington's new "Forests and Fish" rules on small nonindustrial private forestland (NIPF) owners in western Washington. The new rules restrict timber harvest in a three-zone riparian buffer* along any potentially fish-bearing stream. The purpose of the case studies is to examine how bare land values, total forest asset values and future cash flows for small landowners are impacted by the new harvest restrictions. By comparing case studies, the extent to which there is a disparity of impacts between different small landowners can be seen. This study also compared different riparian management options to see how economic impacts were influenced by these choices. In addition, the compensation available for each case study under the Forest Riparian Easement (FRE)** program was assessed to see how effectively the program would mitigate economic losses. The results of the case studies show that economic losses can be significant for small landowners. The results also show a large range and disparity of impacts, with up to a 97 percent difference in impacts between some landowners. However, the losses are heavily influenced by how the riparian zone is managed. If no harvesting is done in the riparian zone, bare land value, forest value and future cash flow reductions are as high 120 percent, 87 percent and 71 percent, respectively. However, by harvesting in the riparian zone to the full extent allowed by the rules, both the magnitude and the disparity of impacts are reduced, with the highest losses in bare land value, forest value and cash flows being 75 percent, 48 percent and 37 percent, respectively. The case studies also demonstrated that the FRE program would significantly reduce the losses to forest value and future cash flows, especially if the maximum allowable harvest is done in the riparian zone. However, since the FRE program only affects the losses for the current crop of timber, bare land values, as supported by timber income, remain substantially reduced and may be expected to impact future use of the land.
It is important to note that this study did not evaluate all potential economic impacts from the new rules. Additional harvesting restrictions on unstable slopes and new requirements for forest roads and harvesting methods have not yet been assessed and will tend to increase the economic impacts on small landowners. For more in-depth information on this and other RTI projects, please visit our website at www.ruraltech.org. Kevin Zobrist is completing his Master of Science in Forest Economics at the University of Washington College of Forest Resources in Seattle. |
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