Anil Raj Kizha
Contact
Location
Expertise
Kizha is a forester who is an expert in geospatial science and sustainable timber harvesting. He primarily investigates factors required to lower the cost of timber harvesting while meeting market demands and minimizing impact on the environment. He has worked in an array of timber-producing areas, including the southern United States and Pacific Northwest, as well as the tropical forests of India.
Kizha balances time between teaching (50%) courses about forest measurement and statistics, forest operations, timber harvesting, forest roads, and forest landscape management and planning, and research (50%) on improving efficiency of timber harvesting operations, geospatial applications in forest operations, timber harvesting and wood procurement, and forest operations planning.
Research
Kizha’s research involves forest engineering and forest products harvesting; especially, estimating the cost and productivity of mechanized operations and modelling supply chain logistics of forest products. He is particularly interested in analyzing how different kinds of harvesting practices influence biomass energy production, nutrient recycling, landscape-level fuel mitigation strategies, along with the economics and efficacy of various equipment options and alternatives. His current and future research will primarily focus on the following categories:
• Improving efficiency of timber harvesting operations
• Geospatial applications in forest operations
• Timber harvesting and wood procurement
• Forest operations planning (road, harvesting, transportation)
Current projects:
Varying Silviculture prescriptions: Cost of operations and residual stand conditions
Best Management Practices for Soil: Cost and Impacts
Evaluating economic feasibility of harvesting Small-diameter trees
Previous projects:
Allometric equations to estimate tree volume: Coastal Redwood
Forest residue recovery and cost:
Modelling biomass logisitics: Cost and productivity
Appointment details
Kizha’s work is supported by:
- School of Forest Resources at the College of Earth, Life and Health Sciences
- Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station
Experiment Station contributions
- Current project: Timber Harvesting in Maine: Assessing Cost, Productivity, and Residual Stand Conditions. McIntire-Stennis project number ME041909.
Areas of Expertise
Data Science
Forest Engineering
Forest Operations
Forest Roads
Forests
Geospatial Science
Land And Natural Resource Use
Timber Harvesting
Wood Procurement
Education
M.S., Environmental Sciences, Louisiana State University A&M, 2012
M.S., Forestry, Louisiana State University A&M, 2008
Courses
SFR 213: Forest Operations Winter Camp
SFR 401: Timber Harvesting
SFR 403: Forest Roads
SFR 499: Senior Research-Independent Study
SFR 510: Forest Operations Finance

