Taking timber browsing damage into account: A density dependant matrix model for the optimal harvest of moose in Scandinavia

At present there is a growing optimism in commercializing the moose hunting in Scandinavia. We developed a deterministic, dynamic bio-economic model to examine the optimal management of land with both moose and timber as potential sources of income. We show that most forest owners should target their moose commerce towards increased quality of the hunt rather than quantity. Due to the inherent complexity of moose: forest interactions we ran the model for a wide array of parameter values to check its sensitivity. Although it was the combined production of timber and moose that gave the highest net value in all run scenarios, timber was the major source of income (69% or more). The main single-factors favouring moose over timber was: low timber productivity of the soil and high moose prices in the market. Also factor synergies can strongly increase the relative value of moose. Our model may serve as a decision tool for choosing the economically optimal moose levels in populations with no across-border migration. It highlights the following need for further studies: I. Quantifying the relationship between browse availability (forest state, moose density) and moose condition (weights, fecundity). II. Quantifying the relationship between browse availability and timber browsing damage.