Economagic: A Learning Module for Demystifying Forest Economics

Why learn about forest economics?

Your forest is one of your most valuable assets. Regardless of your ownership objectives, you will regularly be faced with decisions that have significant economic implications, such as what species to grow, how much to spend on stand improvement activities (vegetation control, fertilization, thinning, etc.), whether or not to purchase new equipment, and when to harvest. The concepts and tools presented in this web module will help you to make more informed management decisions and to plan for the long-term financial health of your forest. These concepts and tools also have broader applications for your personal finances (borrowing and investing).

What’s inside?

This learning module includes six lessons covering the basic concepts of forestry economics and finance. Each lesson is presented as an interactive video and slide show that lasts approximately 25 minutes. Lessons include notes that you can print out, short quizzes to test your knowledge, exercises to practice concepts, and activities to help you apply concepts to your own circumstances.

Not a math whiz? Not a problem! While the lessons do include some formulas for those who are interested in “getting under the hood” to see how the mathematics work out, these formulas are only for reference as the focus of this learning module is on understanding concepts not on crunching numbers. For the number crunching we’ve included the online Economagic Calculator—it’s easy to use and will do all the math for you! We’ve also included links to other freely-available tools and references if you want to explore concepts in more depth, and a complete glossary of terms used in the lessons.

As you work through this learning module, you may want to visit other available modules to develop a broader understanding of important related topics such as management objectives and decision-making and management planning for multiple resources.

How to use this learning module

The six lessons in this learning module follow a sequence, with each lesson building on the concepts of the previous lesson. Because of this, we don’t recommend beginning a lesson without first completing the preceding ones. However, you may not need to complete all six lessons. The lessons are divided into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Use the description of these levels on the lessons menu to choose the lessons that are right for you.

When completing a lesson, we suggest the following steps:

1. Print out the lesson notes, which will help you follow along during the lesson video.
   
   
2. Watch the lesson video. The videos range in length from 11 – 24 minutes. The interactive controls allow the videos to be stopped and started at any point, so you can learn at whatever pace you desire. You can watch part of a video now, and then come back another day to pick up where you left off. As you watch you can pause, skip ahead, or go back. The slide show with each video also includes live links, and we encourage you to pause the video frequently and use these links to look up terms in the glossary and to follow along with the examples using the Economagic Calculator.
   
   
3. After each lesson, take the short quiz to test your knowledge of the key concepts presented. Review the lesson notes and video as needed.
   
   
4. Work through the lesson exercises to practice concepts. When you have completed the exercises, review the exercise solutions to check your understanding.
   
   
5. Complete the activity, which will be a customized exercise allowing you to apply the concepts from the lessons to your personal situation (your tree farm or your personal finances). You may want to contact your local extension forester or a consulting forester for assistance with this.
   

Ready to start? Proceed to the Lessons.