NORTHEAST DECISION-MODEL DESIGN DOCUMENT

Managing forests is difficult and complex. Managing forests for multip le values such as visual quality, wildlife habitat, wood products, and watershed protection while maintaining the sustainability it of the f ull system in an integrated manner is even more difficult and complex. Much knowledge exists regarding management for various resources, but it is usually scattered in the literature, focused on a single resour ce. and not necessarily applicable to a manager's specific site. This situation defines a classic need for decision support systems to assis t in developing and defining both problems and solutions in forest man agement. The Northeast Decision model (NED) is a computer-based decisi on support system being developed by the Northeastern Forest Experimen t Station in cooperation with the Southern and North Central Forest Ex periment Stations, the Eastern and Southern regions of the National Fo rests, and numerous others. NED will provide site-specific expert reco mmendations on silvicultural prescriptions to optimize management of m ultiple resources on forests of the Eastern United States. This hypert ext Design Document provides an in-depth description of the entire SED project.