An Introduction to the Economics of Forest Disturbance

Abstract

Increasing severity of recent wildfires, storms, pest outbreaks, and biological invasions has intensified concern among governmental agencies, private enterprises, and the general public regarding the future of forest resources. Economic analysis can help decision-makers understand the causes and consequences of forest disturbances, as well as evaluate trade-offs, and set priorities. It is the premise of this book that similarities existing among forest disturbances permit the development of a unified framework for economic analysis. This book sketches out how this framework could be constructed, provides an overview and summary of current research in the economics of forest disturbances, and illustrates how economic theory and empirical methods can be applied to address specific disturbances. From an economic perspective, a forest disturbance can be defined as an event that interrupts or impedes the flow of goods and services provided by forest ecosystems that are desired by people. This definition parallels the ecological definition of a natural disturbance as ... any relatively discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability, or the physical environment (White and Pickett 1985, p. 7). Although timber harvesting and land use change are forest disturbances according to this definition, in this book we address large-scale natural disturbances that can be mediated and modified by human actions. Examples of such large-scale natural forest disturbances occurring during the past century include the chestnut blight which largely eliminated chestnut trees from hardwood forests in the eastern United States, Hurricane Katrina which blew down large swaths of forest in the United States Southeast, and the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding forest ecosystems that burned more than onequarter million hectares. Catastrophic disturbances affect both public and private land, and the management interventions applied to mitigate damages will vary depending on the