derosa
and P•nuscontorta
on compacted
soilm
central Washington For Ecol Manage
15:285-294.
FRO•U.•CH,
H.A. 1979.Soilcompaction
fromlogging equipment:effectson the growth of
youngponderosapine. J. SoilWaterConserv.
34:276-278.
FRolics, H.A. 1978.Soilcompaction
fromlow
ground-pressure
torsion-suspension
logging
vehicles on three forest soils. For. Res. Lab.
Oreg.StateUniv. Res.Pap.36, 13p.
GIRL, W.R., .•a4oR.D. M•LL•I•. 1956. A method for
FIELD
study of the influenceof mechamcalimpedanceand aerationon the growth of seedling
fect of tractorloggingon softand regeneration
in the Douglas-fir region of southwestern
roots. P. 154-157 in Soil Sci. Soc. Proc.
Washington.
P. 77-80 in SOc.Am. For. Pzoc
Ho•,
G.T., F.B. KNIGHT, •
R.A. STRUC•-
TEkeZER.1978. The effects of mechanized
har-
vestingon soil conditionin the spruce-firregion of north-centralMaine. Bull. Maine Life
Sci.Agric.Exp.Stn.No. 751.
Lcv•L,H.W. 1959.Soilcompaction
on forestand
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768.33p.
STEU•RENNER,E.C., •
S.P. G•SS•. 1955. Ef-
PatrickC. West, StevenR. Brechin, and
Dale]. Blahna
4
In this articlewe discussa studyof
residential wood energy use and
needsof the rural elderly.This topic
hasreceived
verylittleattention,yetis
potentiallyvery importantto the well
beingof the rural elderly.On the one
needsand problemsof the rural elderly. A studyby Force(1986)among
hand
sample,in particular,tended to be
nonusersof residentialwood energy.
However, she did not analyzethese
findingsfurtheror followup on their
implications
for wood energyand the
elderly.
for
home
heatingcanbe an importantsourceof
cost savingsfor elderly personson
fixed incomes; and on the other hand
the elderly may be forcedto reduce
theiruseof woodenergydue,in part,
perhapsto increasing
healthproblems
and increasing frailty and loss of
strengthandendurance
dueto normal
biological
aging.
Therehas been a growingbody of
literatureon residentialwoodenergy,
but much of this literature has focused
on supplyand marketsfor residential
fuelwood (e.g., Palmer et al. 1980,
rural Idaho residents found that non-
users of residential wood energy
tendedto be older, on average,than
users, and that retired members in the
AND
The StudyRegion
Six counties
in northern
Third
Central
Hardwood
conf., Univ. Mo.
A randomsampleof 1864property
ownersin the six studycountieswas
selectedfrom the 1986property tax
rollsin eachCountyEqualizationOfrice.The targetsampleratiowas2.8%
of landowners.A samplingquotawas
calculatedfor eachcountyand each
municipality(township,city, or village)within the sixcountiesbasedon
the numberof real propertydescriptions.Propertyownerswere selected
at randomfrom the alphabeticlist of
all property ownersin each county
Commercialand tax exempt owners
were not countedas part of the sampling frame. Owners of multiple
parcelswere counted only once in
orderto reducesamplingbias.Names
were selecteduntil the quotafor both
the county and each municipahty
within the countywere reached.Both
absenteeand permanentresidents
wereincludedin the sample,but only
the resultsfor permanentresidents
are shown here because of the focus of
Michiganwere selectedto serveasthe
regionfor the study.The selectionof
A four wave mail surveywas sent
out. The first wave includeda survey
the counties
and cover letter. The second wave was
was based on the fol-
forest resources,at least 50% forested,
vate land. The selected counties were
and with a balanceof publicand priBenzie, Leelenau,Kalkaska,Ostego,
Alpena,and Alconacounties.
a reminderpost card. The third wave
was anothersurveyand coverletter,
followed by a final reminder post
card.Of the 767 surveyssentout to
permanent residents in the full
sample,384werereturned,a response
rate of 50%.
contributions
from our readersdescribing
usefulideas,
shortcuts,and findingsfor the field for-
Table1. Ageand wood use.
Age
ester.
2 Thisresearch
wasfundedby a McIntireStennisForestryResearchgrant. The senior author would like to thank the Univer-
sityof Michigan,Instituteof Gerontology,
for a SeniorFellowshipthat providedtime
for literature review, improved understandingof the aging process,data analysis,and paperwriting.
• University
of Michigan,School
of Natural
Resources,
Dana Bldg.430 E. University,
Ann Arbor, M148109-1115.
• Collegeof NaturalResources,
UtahState
University,Logan,UT 84322.
36 NJAF8(1991)
saccharura Marsh.
Mail Surveyand ResponseRates
the residential wood energy user
(e.g.,Force1986,SkogandWatterson
but nonreferred
J.R. DONNEgLY.
1980. De-
tectionof soilcompaction
relatedstressin Acer
lower
1986).Of the literaturethat focuseson
• Edited
WmLm•S, M.H., •
METHOD
lowing criteria. All counties in the
study area are rural, in proximityto
1983, MDNR 1981-82, Tillman 1978),
under an oak forest. Minn. For. Res. Note No
257.
this sub-study.
DATA
Cable and Warner 1988, Evans and
Parker 1987, Parker 1984, MDOC
scantattentionis given to the special
changesin soil densityfollowingcompaction
SampleSelection
NOTE
Residential Wood Energy and the
Rural Elderly in Northern
Lower Michigan2
the use of wood
SOc. Am. For., Bethesda, MD.
THORUV, D.B., AND S.S. FRISSELL.1976. Time
Percent wood
use
100%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
51-99%
10-50%
Under 10%
None
Under 40
40- 59
60 +
24
30.8%
31
39.7%
10
12.8%
7
9.0%
6
7.7%
31
27.2%
40
35.1%
23
20.2%
12
10.5%
8
7.0%
10
9.0%
37
33.3%
27
24.3%
18
16.2%
19
17.1%
X2 = 25.2, d.f. = 8, Cramer'sV = 0.2, P < 0.001.
RESULTS
Table2. Ageandwooduseby income.
In Table 1 it can be seen that the el-
derly over 60 have reducedtheir dependenceon woodasa homeheating
source. In most cases this has not re-
suitedin totallygivingup wood,but
ratherin reducingthe percentage
of
home heatingdependenceon wood.
This canbe seenin particularin a reduction
from 100% use of wood to
lower percentages.
Thesedifferences
are statistically
significant(X2 = 25.2,
d.f. = 8, P < 0.001).Thesedifferences
were not due to differences in facilities
to burn wood. The elderly did not
have significantlyless facilitiesfor
burning wood than did younger
gToups(X2 = 4.8, d.f. = 2, NS). Nor
do incomedifferences
seemto explain
Lower income subtable (0-$19,999)
Age
Percent
wood use
Under 40
40-59
60+
51-100%
N
%
13
72.2%
16
69.6%
26
43.3%
0-50%
N
%
5
27.8%
7
30.4%
34
56.7%
X2 = 7.4, d.f. = 2, Cramer'sV = 0.27, P < 0.05.
Higherincomesubtable($20,000+)
Age
Percent
wood use
Under 40
40-59
60+
51-100%
N
%
39
68.4%
45
59.2%
17
42.5%
0-50%
N
%
18
31.6
31
40.8%
23
57.5%
X2 = 6.5, d.f. = 2, Cramer'sV = 0.19, P < 0.05.
these differences. Table 2 shows that
the relationship between age and
wood burning is about the samefor
bothhigherandlowerincomegroups.
Table3 indicates
thatthe elderly,just
as much as youngergroups,would
wood. Our results indicate that for
those who heat 100% with wood in
dency amongthe otherwisehealthy
elderly toward falling can also be
problematic
(Ochset al. 1985,RomickAllen and Schultz1988).Injuriesfrom
falling may be more likely to cause
bone breakageand slower healing.
Thus,bothfallsandfearof fallingmay
inhibitwoodcutting.Declineof cognitive functioningdue to Alzheimer's
disease (Cohen 1987, Miller and
thisregion,almost60%usefrom 16to
Cohen 1981) or other forms of "de-
over
mentia and delirium" (Besdine1988,
Kausler 1970) could also present increasinglysevere obstaclesto continued participationin wood cutting
andburning.
hke to heat more with wood.
Oneobvious
reasontheelderlymay
be reducingtheir use of woodis that
w•th increasing
illnessandthe normal
agingprocesstheymaybe lessableto
handle the rigors of heating with
25 face cords of wood
each
heatingseason.
If a personengages
in
all thelaborto cut,haul,cutup, and
split this amount of wood it can tax
the physicalcapabilities
of younger
people,let alonetheelderly.Otherresuitsof the studyindicatethat the elderly (probablyfor financialreasons)
do not purchasefirewoodmore than
younger personsin order to avoid the
heavy labor (X2 = 26.11, d.f. = 20,
DISCUSSION
This study found that the rural elderlyin the studyregionheatedwith
wood lessthan youngerage groups.
This was not due to differences
in
NS).
wood burningfacilitiesor to differen-
In additionto majordiseaseaffiictons of oldagesuchascardiovascular
Impairments(Wei 1988), high blood
pressure(Roweand Lipsitz1988),os-
tial income. Obviously, the heavy
physical labor coupled with the
growingrestrictionsof aging are one
possiblecausefor this decrease.Programsto assistthe elderlyto maintain
teoporosis (Chesnut 1985), arthritis
(Tonn 1987), and cancer, the normal
their use of wood energyshouldbe
explored.Whilebothhighincomeand
low incomeelderlyreducetheiruseof
wood, programs should perhaps
focuson low incomeelderly,as they
are the ones that perhaps need it
most.
It would probablybe unrealisticin
thisday and ageto expectmuchin the
way of publicfundingfor suchprograms. Voluntary assistancegroups
are the mostlikelyformof assistance.
Communitygroupscouldtakeon service projectsthat would help the elderly with the heavylaborof cutting
andhaulingwood.Perhapsa forester,
readingthis, will considermobilizing
hisor her churchor servicegroup.We
for ourpart areexploringthepotential
for forest landowner
associations
to
serveas a basisfor mobilizingvoluntary"pointsof light."Priorto theinitiation of suchprograms,a socialas-
sessment
shouldbe donein proposed
projectregionsto determineif elderly
peoplein theseareaswould be interested in participationin such programs.
[]
aging process among otherwise
healthyelderlypersonsmay create
slowlyincreasing
constraints
to physicalactivity.Forinstance,90-95of the
populationabove65 have cartilage
lossthatcouldvailablyimpairparticipationin wood cutting(Caplan1989,
pers.comm.;Caplan1984).Alsopart
of normalhumanagingis theatrophy
of skeletal
musclestrength
andendurancethat mayincreasingly
limit strenuousphysicalactivityamongthe otherwisehealthyelderly(Faulkneret al.,
undated, Grimby and Saltin 1983).
Evenolderpersons
whoexercise
regularly and stayin shapeshowmuscle
atrophycomparedto their younger
years. Similarly, an increased ten-
Table3. Liketo heatmorewith woodby age.
Like to heat
more with wood?
DefinitelyYes N
%
ProbablyYes
N
%
Maybe
ProbablyNot
Age
Under 40
14
25.3%
12.7%
6
5.5%
23
20.9%
14
12.7%
53
48.2%
7
8.4%
N
15
%
18.1%
N
%
DefinitelyNot N
%
40-59
21
9
10.8%
31
37.3%
60+
21
17.6%
10
8.4%
18
15.1%
10
8.3%
60
50.4%
X2 = 9.1, d.f. = 8, Cramer'sV = 0.12,NS (notsignificant).
NJAF8099z) 37
LITERATURE
CITED
BesDn•a•,R.W. 1988. Dementia and delirium. P.
375-401 in Geriatric medicine. Little Brown,
Boston.
CAnrE, T.T., AND T.D. WARNER.1988. Retail sales
of fuelwood in Kansas. Nat. Woodlands 11:1520.
CAPLAN,
A. 1984.Cartilage.Sci.Am. 251:84-94.
CHESNU?,C.H. III. 1985. Osteoporosis. P.
801-812 in Principlesof geriatricmedicine.
McGraw Hill, New York.
COHEN,G.D. 1987. Alzheimer's disease.P. 27-30
in The encyclopedia
of aging.SpringerPubl.,
New York.
FORCE,
J E 1986 Resultsof a surveyon residential wood energy use in Idaho. Univ. Idaho
For.,Wildl. andRangeExp.Stn.Tech.Rep.19.
GRIMBY,G., AND B. SALTIN.1983. The aging
muscle.Clin.Physiol.3:209-218.
KAUSLER,
D.H. 1970.Experimental
psychology
and humanaging.Wiley, New York.
MDNR. 1981-2. Fuelwood use in Michigan
homes:1981-82 surveyresults.Mich. Dep.
Nat. Resour.,For. Manage.Div.
MDOC. 1986.Michiganwood energydevelopmentplan:An addendumto Michigan'sforest
resources statewide forest resourcesplan.
Mich. Dep. Commerceand Mich. Dep. Nat.
Resour.
EVANS,A.W. III AND R.G. pARKER.1987. Fuel-
wood processing
in New Hampshirebecomes
a mature industry.North. J. Appl. For. 4:7678.
MILLER, N.E., AND G.D. COHEN (eds.). 1981.
Clinicalaspectsof Alzheimer'sdiseaseand senile dementia. Raven Press, XXX.
dated.Skeletalmuscleweakness
andfatiguein
old age: Underlying mechanisms.Unpubl.
pap., Univ. Mich., Inst. Getontology.
COMPUTER
1985.Neural and vestibularagingassociated
with falls.P. 378-399in Handbookof the psychologyof aging.Ed. 2. Van NostrandRein-
the evaluation
of numerous
managementalternatives,each with
associated
activities
and cash flows.
For thoseactivitiesthat may not occur
until severalyearsinto the future,one
or morepossibleoutcomesmayresult.
It is particularlydifficult to estimate
timber yieldsbecausethey generally
do not occuruntil severalyearsafter
project initiation. Unfortunately,
many investmentanalysesdo not include any considerationof how these
different outcomesmight affect the
project, even in caseswhere significantrisk may exist.
Methodsthat may be used to evaluate the uncertaintyfor any giveninvestment
alternative
include
a sensi-
tivity analysis(Roseet al. 1988,Marty
1964, Weaver and Osterhaus1976), a
break-evenanalysis(Riggsand West
1986), and simulation techniques
(Chamberset al. 1986, Lothner et al.
1986).The break-evenyieldanalysis,a
treatment
the Minnesota
Extension
Service. Contrib-
uted as PaperNo. 18423of the Minnesota
Agricultural
Experiment
Station.
2 Departmentof ForestResources,
Universityof Minnesota,St. Paul,MN 55108,and
Pro-West & Associates, Walker, MN 56484,
respectively.
38
NJAF8(1991)
bloodpressure.P. 193-207 in Geriatricmedicine. Ed. 2. Little Brown, Boston.
SKOG,K.E., AND I.A. WATI'ERSON.
1983. Residential
fuelwood
use in the United
States
1980-81. USDA For. Serv., For. Prod. Lab,
Madison,WI. SurveyCompletionRep.
TILLMAN,D.A. 1978. Wood as an energy reTONN,E.A. 1987.Arthritis.P. 37-38 in The Encyclopediaof aging.SpringerPubl.,New York
WEI, J.Y. 1988. Cardiovascular system. P
167-192
in Geriatric medicine.
Ed. 2. Little
Inst. 1989, Schuster 1988) and com-
combinations
will
specificmanagementintensityis financiallyacceptable.
Formulashavebeenpresentedand
illustrated for hand-calculating a
break-even yield (Fox 1988). Those
discount
21:591-600.
Several microcomputerinvestment
analysisprograms(For. Resour.Syst
provide a financial break-even. For
thosecaseswhere normalyield data is
not available,the managermust critically evaluatethe break-evenharvest
yields to determinethe siteswhere a
formulas
I This contributionwas supportedby the
Collegeof NaturalResources
and the University of MinnesotaAgriculturalExperiment Stationunder ProjectMN 42-40and
Biomechanics.
RowE, J.W., AND L.A. LIPSITZ. 1988. Altered
calculator.
special case of the break-even analysis, calculatesthe minimum harvest
volume required to earn a minimum
specifiedrate of return on forestmanagementactivities(Fox1988).The net
present value criterion (NPV) is frequentlyusedin this analysis.The calculatedbreak-evenyield then canbe
comparedto localvolumetablesto determine if the proposedinvestment
appearsbiologically
reasonable.
By comparing
a seriesof break-even
yield curves for different stumpage
price assumptions to curves for
normalyieldtabledata,a managercan
quickly assesswhat stand management
mechanicsof reactionsto impendingfalls J
anddiscounting
asappliedon a hand-
CORNER
Charles
R. BlinnandGreggP. Hove
2
Forestry investment analysis in-
1:85-87.
ROMICK-ALLEN,
R., AND A.B. SCHULTZ.1988. Bio-
Brown, Boston.
hold, New York.
Performinga Break-evenYield
AnalysisUsing a Microcomputer
volves
BAILEY
1980.Woodand energym New England,a review andbibliography.
USDA Bib.and Lit of
Agfic. No. 7. Wash., DC 71 p.
PARKER,
R.G. 1984.Willingness
of Michiganlandownersto sell firewood.North. J. App1.For
source. Academic Press, New York.
OCHS,A.L., J. NEWBERRY,
AND M.L. LEN•,•ZDT.
FAULKNER,
J.A., S.V. BROOKS,
ANDE. ZERBA.Un-
PALMER, L R, R McKusICK, AND M
future
cash flows.
Exceptfor the analyseswhere the effectsof inflation are disregarded,future cash flows must first be calculated
by inflatingtoday'spriceat the appropriate inflationrate. While many calculatorshave function keys that can
be used to facilitate the necessary
computations,the analysismay be
complexfor anyonethat is not familiar
with the principlesof compounding
puterspreadsheets
currentlyareavailable to calculatecompoundingand
discountingfactors and investment
performancecriteria.Thosetoolsalso
may be usedto calculatea break-even
yield.
This paper outlines the stepsrequired to perform the break-even
yield analysisusing a microcomputer
program. A simple hypotheticalexample is presentedto show how to
perform the analysis. Two caseexamplesare then presentedto demonstrate the utility of the break-even
yield analysis. All analysesassume
that the landowner
has a minimum
ac-
ceptablerate of return of 8% and that
the inflation
ANALYTICAL
rate is 4.6%.
PROCEDURES
The steps required to perform an
automatedbreak-evenyield analysis
and to graphthe resultsare outlined
below.
1. For eachforestmanagementalternative, obtain the relevant informa-
tion for eachactivity--amountof
the cash flow (price times quantity), year of occurrence,
and real
price increase,if any. For timber
harvest income activities, use the
appropriatestumpagerate and an
estimation of volume that you
mightexpectfromthe site.Alsoestablish the inflation rate and the re-
quiredrateof return(discountrate)
for the analysis.
2. Enter your Step1 assumptionsinto
your financialanalysissoftware.If
intermediatestumpagereturns are
expectedfrom an alternative,you
may either createone harvestactivity that occursmultipletimesor
separateharvest activities.Create
one harvest activity that occurs