LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT THROUGH INTEGRATION OF EXISTING TOOLS AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

A landscape approach to forest management must consider the implicatio ns of alternative scenarios across stands and through time. The Landsc ape Management System, a computer program, facilitates implementation of this approach by integrating forest inventories, spatial informatio n, growth model, visualization, summarization, and analysis. A case st udy with three scenarios-no harvest, clearcut, and thinning-exposes th e complex tradeoffs inherent in forest management and highlights the n eed for comparative analysis tools.