Natural composition of tree species as a basis for model development of stumpage price

Nacrtak Model development and use play a significant role in research and forest management of Slovenian forests. As co-natural and sustainable forest management is traditional, it is essential to rely on available knowledge of the composition of natural plant associations. This paper describes the need for stumpage price modelling, and the basic concept of developing models which can behave dynamically as forest structure approaches the final goal – tree composition close to nature. The main plant associations in Slovenia and their characteristic tree structure represent the so called model goal. Input data are taken from forest inventory base and are compared with the model goal. The difference between the model and true tree structure together with growth and other variables gives the intensity and structure of prescribed annual cut and consequently the value of wood assortments. The model produced several possible scenarios for the next decades, and this has already proved to be a good basis for decision making.