Spatial and temporal allocation of stratum-based harvest schedules
Stratum-based timber harvest schedules must be disaggregated into operational plans prior to implementation. In most cases this is an expensive and time-consuming manual task that does not ensure consistency between the long-term harvest schedule and short-term operational activities. This paper presents the results of applying the CRYSTAL algorithm, which automates the disaggregation and allocation of a stratum-based harvest schedule into harvest blocks, to a small forest in New Brunswick. The results indicate that it is possible to use a set of allocation guidelines to quickly delineate harvest blocks in a consistent, reproducible manner. We also discuss how the algorithm is used in conjunction with a Monte Carlo integer programming model to estimate the potential losses in timber harvest volumes attributable to deviations from the stratum-based schedule and the addition of adjacency constraints.