Two approaches to the formulation of resource management policy sere considered, .The first was to construct a formal mathematical decision-making model of the system and to obtain optimal decisions analytically. The second was to use heuristics. The western tent caterpillar population system was chosen as the resource system on which to compare the approaches. various policies were tested on a computer simulation model of the system. It was found that a combination of the two approaches linear programming and heuristics) led to satisfactory harvesting policies. The results indicate that ignoring the basic biological attributes of the resource could lead to mismanagement, and possibly even destruction of the population. / Science, Faculty of / Mathematics, Department of / Graduate