Steve N. Scharosch
Steve has BS and MS degrees from the University of Idaho, specializing in quantitative ecosystem modeling/statistics/operations research for natural resource management.
Steve's work experience includes 25 years continuous experience in developing tools and procedures to support long-range forest land management planning. Steve spent two years with Boise Cascade's corporate timberland management staff developing software tools to support long-range forest management planning efforts for roughly 3.5 million acres of company timberlands in the U.S. Steve then moved to a regional analyst position with Boise Cascade, using many of those same tools in the development of long-range forest management plans. In this position, Steve's responsibilities included gathering of field data for use in land inventory and long-range planning; installation of computer hardware and software for a forestry GIS system; system administrator/operator for a Data General mini-computer system; and computer end-user training for a staff of 15.
Steve left Boise Cascade in 1986 and returned to Casper, WY to establish Abacus Enterprises, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in quantitative natural resource planning. For nearly 30 years Steve has operated Abacus, providing services for clients throughout North America. Steve has managed several multi-year projects involving the development and implementation of software systems to support long-range forest management planning. Many of these projects have required the ability to facilitate/coordinate project work amongst several project cooperators, often with competing goals. As part of these projects, Steve has been responsible for written and oral presentation of project results.
Steve has extensive experience in long-range forest planning. Much of this planning has utilized USFS planning tools--specifically the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS), and the FORPLAN/Spectrum planning models. Steve has been involved with both of these programs, on both the programmer and user level, for over 30 years. Steve has provided technical support/advice on model structure/functioning; provided custom FORPLAN analyses for timberland acquisition/management planning; developed linkages between FORPLAN and MIS/GIS databases, forest simulators, and reporting programs; and developed means of incorporating wildlife habitat/ecosystem diversity measures into FORPLAN.