By Bob Rammer and Dunn M~ 1'0Y Pinyon-juniper (Pl) woodlands pro-vide significant resource manag~ me11t challenges hi the westem United States. Lacking disturbances such as fires, pinyon and jlllliper trees grow c! 08C% together ova lime, c: xpanding into SUD'01Dlding grasslands and sagebrush habita1a, occupying ever more aci. u. This expmsion is a. concern to land manager: s for a variety of reuolll. When p: inyon-ju-lliper atmds in Utah become denae, they become more prone to crown fires. This extreme fire type leaves little behind but clJam! ll. stems and a ripe seedbed for choa1 grass and. o1hl!'. r noxious weeds. By remov-ing a parli0tt of the PJ ill the8C atand. t, the resistance of die remaining IIml to dll! tm:-'baDces is improved. 1be Ion of sagebrush habitat ia w: iolher conccm, eapecially in light of the possible listing af the greala'aage grouse aa an en&mge: ed epec. lct. ln an effort to slaw this tide of ecologiall c. hange, the Bllft\all. of Land Man. aganatt and many o «het arganh: ationa, such aa Utah's Watcnhed Restoration Initiative well-developed syllteim for culW! g aild handling the material. Traditional. logging equipment, which was developed for lllOftl uadi1iOll81 fore61a, can be lllillzed, but it is oversized and, thrmsfore, ova: priced to be able to ope: ale ill a coet-efficiem m. amier in PJ woodlands. Hervesling systems using conventional logging machines are estimated to COit at! ea. at $75 per toll. This cost am be covered by selling 1. m: ger, bighvalue material such as sawlogs, but prices paid for bi. om. us, blliCd Oil informal &m· veys and observation, tend to run more in 1henmgeof $1 Sto $30 pertOD.'lb. m: fo~. a study conducted by the US FllRl'! t Ser-vice, Bureau of Land Manage! llllnt (BLM), Bloomln Ranch Servicea LLC, and the Utah Biomass Resoun:: es Group attempted to identify altemative harvest-ing end processing IIHllhods that ere more cost-effective.