Optimal management of a size-distributed forest with respect to timber and non-timber values

Forests are a renewable natural resource. As such their optimal management is guided by the answers to the two fundamental questions in renewable natural resource economics: What is the optimal moment in time to harvest the resource? And, how much of the resource should be extracted at that moment? In contrast to the management of other renewable resources such as in fishery or husbandry, forest management is characterized by the long time span it takes trees to reach the minimum merchantable size.