Spatial economic analyses in moose management

Summary

The costs and benefits related to moose and moose hunting in Norway varies considerable depending on whether a landowner?s property lies in a traditional wintering area or summer area for moose. During winter the moose can cause major damage to young pine forest, whereas during late summer/autumn the moose represents great values due to hunting related income. Typically, moose in central Norway stay in lower elevated areas during winter, but migrates to higher altitudes when calving season starts. This seasonal migration pattern is induced by two important climatic factors; snow depth and temperature. By the use of kernel density functions based on moose telemetry data we have modelled spatial and temporal changes in moose densities for two different seasons through several years. The utilisation distributions (UD) are matched with GIS data on climate and altitude in a cell-by-cell fashion explained by Marzluff et al. (2004). An economic moose management model is then presented, based on predicted spatiotemporal moose density maps and the actual landowner configuration in the area, suggesting a fair allocation of income and costs related to moose and moose hunting in Norway.