Financial analysis of diameter-limit cut stands in northern hardwoods

Diameter-limit cutting of stands in the US northeast is a common practice often thought to give the landowner the highest financial returns. A landowner’s decision to diameter-limit cut or use some other harvesting option on a given stand involves examining mutually exclusive investments. Previous research that compared diameter-limit cutting to other harvesting options implicitly assumed these were independent investments. This paper develops analytical models to examine a variety of harvesting options for a single stand, including diameter-limit cutting, as mutually exclusive investments, and with stand and financial parameters defined by the landowner. These models are used to examine implications of changes in the financial parameters for harvesting options. It is found that no simple guidelines can be laid down for choice of harvesting options to maximise the net present value of stands with respect to diameter-limit cutting compared to other harvesting options. The empirical examples reveal that which harvesting option has the largest net present value depends on the parameters of the landowner’s stand and the financial parameters chosen by the landowner. The analysis illustrates the importance of understanding the interrelationships between the financial and stand parameters in determining whether a diameter-limit cut is in fact the best financial option for a landowner.