Economic Implications of Proposed Forest Management Guidelines for Minnesota

Excerpts from the Executive Summary: The Minnesota Forest Resources Council is developing integrated forest management guidelines for voluntary use on all forest lands in Minnesota. Guidelines address four areas: forest management in riparian zones, activities to protect soil productivity, maintenance and enhancement of wildlife habitat, and protection of historic and cultural sites. These guidelines will be combined with existing visual quality and water quality and wetland best management practices into a comprehensive set of timber harvesting and forest management guidelines. The primary goal of the guidelines is to achieve forest resource sustainability by recommending standards for forest management activities such as timber harvesting, road construction, timber stand improvement and site preparation. The goals of this study are to estimate the area and timber volume that would be affected by implementing the recommended practices, to better understand the benefits to be gained, to investigate the costs for landowners and several sectors that depend on forest resources, and to identify possible public policy strategies that might increase use of the guidelines and mitigate any particularly costly effects.