THE ASSET
Standing forest
Wood units · Forest cover on a 0–100% scale
The core trade-off
Harvest today, or preserve tomorrow’s stock?
Allocate one crew between logging and replanting. Watch how a quick harvest boom can shrink the biological asset that future harvests depend on.
Live landscape
Northwood concession
Paused
Year 0
Evidence board
Short-run flow, long-run stock
Reset the same seed to overlay this run for comparison.
THE FLOWS
Growth and extraction
Annual wood units · Same scale for both flows
What to notice
Look beyond the first harvest boom.
Try 12 loggers first. Then reset the same seed and try six. Which policy leads in year 10? Which has produced more by year 100—and what forest remains?
Open the model Assumptions & species parameters
This is a stylized teaching model, not an empirical forest forecast. A tree’s wood stock follows a smooth S-shaped path to its species maximum. Trees do not die or regenerate naturally in version 1.
| Species | Maturity | Maximum yield | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silver birch | 8 years | 6 units | Fast / light |
| Norway spruce | 14 years | 11 units | Balanced |
| English oak | 25 years | 18 units | Slow / heavy |
- One logger can cut at most one tree per year.
- One planter can establish at most two seedlings per year.
- Loggers choose the trees with the greatest current wood yield.
- Empty land, prices, costs, shocks, and discounting are intentionally omitted.