Cost-Efficient Density Estimation Based on Nearest Individual Distances in a Natural Forest

One useful method of estimating tree density is based on point to individual distances. Estimators are available for data on i‐th nearest individual distances, i = 1, 2, 3,…, etc. This paper provides a method of deciding the optimal value of i in the sense of providing the maximum likelihood estimator of density with minimum mean square error subject to given outlay. The result derived for a Poisson forest is extended to an aggregated forest.