Estimating benefits from whole-tree chipping as a logging innovation in Northern US forests
Two supply schedules were estimated for pulpwood production quantities and prices - with and without adoption of whole-tree chipping technology. One schedule reflects output of hardwood pulpwood (including whole-tree chips) harvested in the Northeast during 1979. The other shows what would have resulted if this pulpwood had been harvested with the mix of production methods that existed 5 years earlier. Comparing these supply schedules indicates the importance of whole-tree chipping in hardwood pulpwood production since 1974. On average, substituting chipping technology for conventional hardwood pulpwood harvesting increased annual production by two and a half times and reduced cost by $6.45 per cord-equivalent delivered as chips. Measuring the downward shift of the industry's supply function illustrates a procedure for estimating benefits of research and subsequent adoption of technology. Whole-tree chipping in 1979 created benefits equal to a 2% cost reduction spread across the entire hardwood pulpwood supply system. (Refs. 5).
- Research Organization:
- NEFES, USDA Forest Service, Broomall, PA 19008, USA
- OSTI ID:
- 5347982
- Journal Information:
- For. Prod. J.; (United States), Vol. 32:11/12
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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