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Economic costs of not planning |
| The negative effects of not planning can impact our economy.
These include possible hardship on forest
industries, possible reduction in
tourism, wildlife management
costs, and water treatment
costs.
Smaller parcel size may negatively impact forest industries
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"There
is little data on how decreasing parcel size affects the forest
products industry as a whole. In general, as parcel size
decreases the costs of managing and removing timber increase due
to the
economy of scale. Smaller parcel sizes result in
increased costs of forest planning management;
as the number of landowners increase so do the variety of goals
and objectives for those parcels of land. This also
increases costs for loggers since they will have to contract
with more landowners and move their equipment more frequently
between more parcels of land to produce smaller volumes of wood.
Increased costs for the timber industry include locating enough
volume to supply the mills and transporting raw materials to the
mills."
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For a perspective on how our wood product consumption relates to the forest products industry, and trends in the forest products industry, view this PowerPoint by a UW Madison professor. |
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Forest loss or
fragmentation may reduce recreation and tourism
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| The loss of forestland affects the
quality of forest based recreation. This in turn
will attract fewer tourists and decrease the number of residents
spending money on forest based recreational activities. |
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Costs may be incurred by
municipalities for wildlife management
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Urban infringement on forests resulting from
lack of planning may result in the need for deer culling, or other
measures to deal with wildlife problems. Greg Dahl, WDNR Wildlife
Manager reported in Fall 2003, that sharpshooters charge around $70
to $120 per deer, depending on whether the deer is processed or not.
Municipalities also can use sprays, eight foot fences or open some
of the municipality to bow hunting. Homeowners report spending
hundreds and even thousands of dollars in attempts to prevent deer
damage and to replace damaged plants.2
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Forest loss may increase
water treatment costs for local governments
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Forested lands protect surface-water and groundwater quality and reduce the likelihood that expensive treatment systems to remove
contaminants will be needed. See the
U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation website for details on the costs of water treatment. |
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Planning for our forests makes sense for the economy
Maintaining contiguous forestlands
through forest planning is a way to protect the state�s economic
benefits from forests. The forest products and forest
recreation industry benefit from fewer conflicts with non-forest
land uses on neighboring lands, and an intact and accessible
forestry infrastructure. All who make their livelihoods in
forest based manufacturing and tourism can be more confident
that the basis of their jobs, the forest, will be sustained.
The public may also be more willing to tolerate the visual
disturbance and other effects of active forestry that do occur
when the community identifies an area as important for forest
production.
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