Modeling the long-term effects of fuelwood harvests on pinyon-juniper woodlands

Journal Article · Mon Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1982 · Environ. Manage.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01868379· OSTI ID:5619826

Samuels, M L; Betancourt, J L

In the Southwestern United States, increasing demand for firewood has quickly promoted pinyon-juniper woodlands to commercial status. Slow recovery rates for pinyon and juniper and inadequate mensuration data present significant obstacles to predictive management efforts. Many national Forest districts have witnessed continued fuel use for at least the past 100 years. To explore the need for long-term analysis at the district level, we have developed FORMAN I, a computer simulation written in FORTRAN IV that models prolonged fuel harvesting and its impact on pinyon-juniper woodlands. The technique is well-suited for historical analyses and we comply with an initial application that involves the suggested impact of prehistoric peoples on a marginal woodland in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. To accentuate the significance of the simulation, we have deliberately overestimated woodland parameters while maintaining conservative annual rates for firewood procurement. A low-density woodland (less than 14.8 cords/ha) is completely depleted within 200 years when subjected to tenth-through-twelfth century estimates of human demography for the canyon. Interesting conclusions are drawn from the lack of pinyon-juniper recovery at Chaco over the past millennium. Traditional assumptions, such as the pristine state of Southwestern vegetation prior to historic settlement and subsequent invasion of marginal grasslands by pinyon and juniper, are questioned.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
• OSTI ID: 5619826
• Journal Information: Environ. Manage.; (United States), Journal Name: Environ. Manage.; (United States) Vol. 6:6; ISSN EMNGD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
299003* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Unconventional Sources & Power Generation-- Other-- (-1989)
530100 -- Environmental-Social Aspects of Energy Technologies-- Social & Economic Studies-- (-1989)
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
F CODES
FEDERAL REGION VI
FORESTS
FUELS
HARVESTING
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NEW MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
PLANTS
RESOURCE DEPLETION
SIMULATION
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
TREES
USA
WOOD FUELS