5th Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology and the 2nd International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management Congress

Monday, 17 November 2003: 4:30 PM
The Market Economics of Mechanical Fuel Treatments
Karen L. Abt, USDA Forest Service, Resarch Triangle Park, NC; and J. P. Prestemon, P. Ince, J. Barbour, R. Fight, and R. Rummer
Current and proposed legislation and policy envisions mechanically treating wildlands to reduce wildfire risks. The economic impacts of introducing these materials into local forest product markets are not well understood. We present modeling results of a nationwide study that examines how producers and consumers are affected by such treatments. Included in this analysis is an evaluation of how differing levels of fuel treatment subsidies, ranging from no subsidy to large subsidies that would encourage private land treatments, would affect the amount of wildland economically treated. Results describe how non-participants in the timber market are adversely affected by such programs, while participants and consumers benefit from such a program.

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