ABSTRACT
The author reviews the correct economic principles that would be applicable if forestry can be regarded simply as sources of wood saleable in competitive markets. This initially assumes away externalities such as flood control, pollution abatement, species preservation, vacationers' enjoyments, etc. The forester's notion of sustained yield is a steady-state notion. The economist's shorter rotation period for the forest, due essentially to a positive interest rate, is also a steady-state notion. But life is not now in a steady-state. Foresters are concerned with sustained yield precisely because they have lived in a world where virgin stands have been decimated. It is only too easy to understand why, with new technologies and consumer tastes and with the cheapening of transport of exports to affluent North America and Western Europe, much land that was once devoted here to trees is transferred to other uses.
