ABSTRACT
Forest pest management is important to forestry for several reasons. First and most obvious is the extraordinary level of mortality, growth impact, and quality loss imposed each year by forest pests on forest productivity. Pest management is principally concerned with insects and diseases; wind, snow, and other damaging agents are excluded. Much of the difficulty in economic analysis of pest management decisions has stemmed from frail biological data and associated projections. The economic analyst needs initial forest conditions and future conditions about tree quality, size distributions, and harvest potential both with and without treatment. Forest pest management has often been viewed as simply applying one more management practice in the forest, subject to standard financial analysis. Insects, diseases, and other damaging agents pose a risk for private and public owners of forests. Technological change has been rapid in forest pest management, often exceeding administrative ability to absorb and effectively implement.
