• Hushaw, Jennifer
  INRS, LLC
  
• Ducey, Mark
  University of New Hampshire
  

Forests are an important part of the cultural and economic fabric of the Northern Forest region, but demand for wood-use within the renewable energy sector has occasionally raised concerns about the sustainability of the forest resource in the face of new and existing demand. Accurate estimates of available wood supply are a critical starting point for decision-making and evaluations of sustainability, but these analyses must also accommodate the fact that not all forested acres are accessible and available for harvesting. This involves answering questions such as: How many acres of forested land are unavailable for harvesting because they are within recommended riparian buffer areas? How many acres of forestland are on slopes that are too steep to harvest as a result of equipment limitations or soil erosion concerns? The datasets generated through this analysis are an attempt to answer these types of questions quantitatively.