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MSU web-based software provides new tools for forestry valuations
New web-based software developed at Mississippi State University makes estimation of timber and timberland investment values easier.
FORVAL-Online, a forestry investment tool for forest valuation and investment analysis developed at MSU's Forest and Wildlife Research Center, is available on the Internet at www.fwrc.msstate.edu/forval.
The new software provides many of the features of an earlier FWRC-developed program, FORVAL for Windows, but in an easier-to-use format.
"FORVAL-Online uses Internet technology to help foresters and forest landowners evaluate forestry investments," said forestry professor and program co-developer Steve Bullard. "The program is designed to be an accurate, easy-to-use and readily available forestry investment analysis package."
Among the calculations the software program will perform are monthly and annual payments, as well as projected stumpage price.
In addition, the program will help evaluate a wide range of financial criteria, including internal rate of return, net present value, benefit/cost ratio, equivalent annual income, land expectation value, and net future value.
"FORVAL-Online provides an extraordinary web-based forestry investment analysis calculator to landowners and forest professionals," Bullard said. "Although this is an Internet application, the actual processing takes place within the user's computer, permitting users to download sections of the program to use without being connected to the Internet."
Department of Forestry
Established in 1954, the Department of Forestry prepares graduates for meaningful science-based careers in the management and use of forested ecosystems. Students who graduate from the forestry program have a 98% placement rate.
