| Abstract: | A forest harvest scheduling model which includes as activities the level of investment in harvest capacity and the accumulated harvest capacity in each period, is presented. The inclusion of these activities, in addition to the harvest activities, allows for the removal of harvest-flow constraints found in more typical Model II formulations of the harvest scheduling problem. The optimal harvest and investment policy can be determined by linear programming or quadratic programming methods, depending on whether prices are constant or supply-dependent. The new model better reflects economic reality than existing models, and provides a method for determining the optimal economic development of a forest industry, and the optimal draw-down of old growth forest. Numerical examples are given. |
