ABSTRACT
Issues surrounding old-growth forest incorporate many of the classic problems in resource and environmental economics, such as optimal use of nonrenewable resources and valuation of nonmarket and public goods, and many newer problems, such as spatial dependencies and institutional arrangements. Because old-growth forests are a temporal condition rather than an ecosystem type, management must also contend with disturbance and uncertainty in developing these forests. This chapter traces out a brief history of the development of old-growth forests as an issue, places them within the context of the classic Faustmann and Hotelling resource optimization problems, discusses potential values of these forests and means of measuring them and concludes with thoughts for future economic analysis.
