Fifty years of operational research in forestry

Abstract

This paper describes operational research (OR) contributions in forestry over the past 50 years, based on scientific pathways along which the authors have traveled. We draw on our personal experiences and recall how the use of OR in forestry has evolved from the early use of linear programming in the Canadian forest products industry in the 1950s and strategic forest management planning by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1960s. We describe the widespread use of OR in many aspects of forestry over a 50‐year timespan (1970–2020) and to the present day, where climate change and biodiversity challenges and increased data availability are important. The paper covers many areas of forestry, including forest management, natural disturbance processes, tactical and operational harvesting, transportation, and value chain management. Each section in the paper includes a historical description of OR‐based key applications as well as OR‐based model and method developments Additionally, we discuss our perceptions of OR in future use and its importance in forestry.