Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Objective 1: Natural Resource Management Under Uncertainty Valuation of the costs and benefits of changes in open space provision on various types of public and private lands throughout the U.S.; assessment of the implications of relevant uncertainties and irreversibilities for the design of climate change, forest management, and water management policies and delineation of general principles for natural resource, environmental and other decisions under uncertainty; quantification of land-use impacts from climate change and biofuels policies; and improved knowledge of household decision-making under uncertainty related to forest wildfire and residential water demand and management. Specific examples of accomplishments include: Research, in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, on the economic benefits of different types of open space in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Assessed housing price differentials in proximity to National Forest, Military lands, and county parks and identified differences in price impacts, especially in the impact of Military lands. Research on the net effect of state-aid on open space preservation by local governments. Concluded that the effectiveness of this approach is context-dependent, varying with underlying market conditions and community characteristics. Development of a new method for valuation of open-space amenities. A week-long workshop on the economic benefits of public land natural resources for USDA Forest Service employees at Colorado State University in cooperation with University of Georgia and Portland State University. A one-day training course on economics of natural resources was help for USGS, USFWS, NPS, Arizona Fish and Game, Bureau of Reclamation and Western Area Power Authority. Research, in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, on the economic benefits of health to estimate how much a person would pay to avoid respiratory symptoms from forest fire smoke associated with wildfires on National Forests in southern California. Development of a watershed simulation model that incorporates the hydrological dynamics caused by dams and found high net benefits from management of instream flow controls. Assessment of the impacts of climate change on agriculture in several, representative northern and southern U.S. counties. Used climate change projections from the USDA Forest Service to estimate county-by-county changes in agricultural production. Research on the impacts of climate change on land use throughout the United States. Examination of the effects of biofuels policies on land use change in Midwestern United States. Quantification, in cooperation with USDA cooperative extension staff, of the impacts of demographic and management factors on winter cover crops. Evaluation of the impact of economic growth on environmental pollution (measured by carbon dioxide emissions) in the United States. Evaluation of the water management concerns associated with oil drilling in western North Dakota. Development of a water quality simulation model to assess the benefits and costs of alternative in a CEAP Watershed in Ohio. Objective 2: Advances in Valuation Methods Continued support for a decision framework for state and federal agencies to determine whether performing benefit transfer is preferred to performing an original study. Factors include the variance in benefit estimates in the benefit transfer analysis, the monetary magnitude of the decision to be made, and the cost of the original study. Improvements in how people conduct benefit transfers and meta-analyses. Reducing time and monetary costs of such analyses. Improved the conduct of primary and secondary valuation tools and incorporation of information into decision making. Developed databases that are instrumental to deriving information from prior research, making it more readily accessible for analysis and decision-making. Shared databases with key stakeholders such as US EPA, the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, and The Trust for Public Land. Improvements in valuation methods to improve efficiency and reliability of valuation estimates. Examples include: new methods to combine stated and revealed preference data; development of approaches for designing and testing valuation methods and application of these approaches to contaminated waste sites, lake and coastal recreation demand, open space, and energy policy attributes; new methods for treatment of omitted variable bias in hedonic property models; new methods for treatment of preference heterogeneity; new understanding of the effects of invitation design, survey mode, and protest responses; new methods for the treatment of time, site entry, and reported visitation in recreation demand models; and a new approach for treatment of multiple bid and response options. Specific examples of accomplishments include: Completion of a meta-analysis of willingness to pay elasticities for residential water supply. Completion of a meta-analysis of the economic impacts of contaminated sites on property values. Development of two models of river-based recreation in Iowa to advance recreation-demand based valuation approaches. Explored the sensitivity of welfare estimates to distinct treatments of site entry and visitation (i.e., choice probabilities rather than discrete yes/no responses). Revealed differences in welfare valuation estimates across alternative assumptions and specifications based on these improvements. Objective 3: Valuation of Ecosystem Services Valuation of the costs and benefits of changes in recreational access and use for a wide variety of recreational activities that occur on various types of public and private lands throughout the U.S. These included: outdoor recreation in the South, recreation in the U.S. National Forests, freshwater angling in the Southeast U.S., coastal recreation amenities in the Southeast U.S., urban forests, tourism amenities in Alaska, lake and river recreation in Iowa, the value of changing lake and reservoir levels in the Tennessee Valley, a kayak park on the Poudre River through Fort Collins, fish stocking at multiple Colorado State Parks, and recreational access to beaches on the Great Lakes. Continued development of standardized concepts and a framework for defining and valuing ecosystem goods and services. The framework provides a basis for testing theory and techniques for valuing multi-attribute ecosystem goods. This information has been provided to federal agencies that are interested in valuation of ecosystem services. Continued research of specific ecosystem services, including the value of ecosystem services provided by lakes, rivers, wetlands, floodplains, and moving water. Progress on ecosystem valuation studies including benefits to water quality, fish, wildlife and climate due to changes in land management. Specific examples of accomplishments include: Development of a recreation demand model to describe visitation to coastal Louisiana. Identified environmental quality, time, and income as key factors influencing the choice of coastal sites visited by recreationists in Louisiana. Examination of how physical and demographic attributes influence the demand for freshwater angling in the Southeastern United States. Evaluation, in cooperation with the City of Fort Collins and a Fort Collins conservation organization, of the potential use and economic impact associated with a proposed kayak park on the Poudre River through Fort Collins. Completion of a study on the economic benefits of improving water quality in Utah to visitors and the general public. Quantification of the economic benefits of fish stocking at several Colorado State Parks using the travel cost method. Estimation of the cost savings to Colorado water providers, state and federal agencies from a cooperative approach to endangered fish recovery in the Upper Colorado River at the request of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Development of a model of recreation visitation to different types of sites in National Forests (e.g., day use developed sites, overnight use developed sites, wilderness sites, and general forest area sites). This model was applied to National Forest sites in the Southern U.S. The results were initially disseminated to technical and general audiences through presentations at professional meetings, working papers, and a published USDA Forest Service General Technical Report. This work provided input into the Southern Forest Futures Project. Analyses of visitation to Iowa lakes and provided the Iowa Department of Natural Resources with a comparison of usage patterns over time in the state, indicating a substantial increase in the demand for lake recreation relative to earlier years in the project. Development of travel cost valuation models for valuing beaches, beach access, and the damages from beach closures on the Great Lakes. Valuation of public access to hunting areas for species such as deer and small game. Development of a recreation demand model to assess the welfare impacts of eight water management regimes using data from 39 lakes and reservoirs in the Tennessee Valley Region to inform a TVA Environmental Impact Statement. Model results reveal uneven regional impacts from such regimes, with trip increases and decreases varying across the region. Assessment of values for alternative mechanisms for ecosystem mitigation. Evaluation of water pricing for water conservation and the protection of ecosystem services. Evaluation of how to supply enhanced ecosystem services from agricultural lands through the adoption of low-input practices. Evaluation of the private financial liabilities from the development of energy resources. Development of hedonic models for the valuation of timber resources within a ecological-economic model of ecosystem service provision from Michigan forests. Development and analysis of stated preference surveys for recycling and energy options at Michigan State University. Completion, in cooperation with USGS, of a pilot economic study on the economic values of Landsat imagery to federal, state, county, non-profits and private companies. Evaluation of alternative stormwater management policies and completion of a review analysis of recent government studies. Concluded that, in light of emerging information about infiltration-focused methods of stormwater management, construction-phase costs would not be significantly increased and long-term system costs could be reduced by policies that encourage those methods from the outset. Completion of a review of agricultural producers' participation in water policy programs and evaluated the feasibility of a tradable permit program allowing agricultural producers to participate via offset credits for implementing best management practices.

Published articles: The list of citations below consists of W2133 published papers from the 2011-12 year. These are organized by Objective and subtask within each objective. Objective 1: Natural Resource Management under Uncertainty Task 1-1: Economic Analysis of Agricultural Land, Open Space and Wildland-Urban Interface Issues Ellingson,L. A. Seidl, and J.Loomis. 2011. Comparing Tourist's Behavior and Values of Land Use Changes. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 54(1): 55-69. Johnston, R.J. and J.C. Bergstrom. Valuing Farmland Protection: Do Empirical Results and Policy Guidance Depend on the Econometric Fine Print. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. (Winter 2011) 33(4): 639-660. Keske, C.D., Hoag, D., McLeod, D., Bastian, C., and M. Lacy. 2011. Using mixed methods research in environmental economics: the case of conservation easements. International Journal of Mixed Methods in Applied Business and Policy Research 1(1): 16-28. McGaffin, G., McLeod, D., Bastian, C., Keske, C., and D. Hoag. 2012. Landowner preferences for conservation easements: a comparison of responses from two intermountain states. Journal of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Task 1-2: Economic Analysis of Natural Hazards Issues (Fire, Invasive Species, Natural Events) Bergtold, Jason S, Patricia A Duffy, Diane Hite and Randy L. Raper. 2011. Demographic and Management Factors Affecting the Adoption and Perceived Yield Benefit of Winter Cover Crops in the South-east. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. In press. Grijalva, T.; R.P. Berrens; W. D. Shaw. Species Preservation versus Development: An Experimental Investigation under Uncertainty. Ecological Economics, 2011, 70 (5/March): 995-1005. Lee, Y., T. Yoon, and F. A. Shah (2011), Economics of Integrated Watershed Management in the Presence of a Dam. Water Resources Research, 47, W10509, doi:10.1029/2010WR009172. Mishra, A. and Paudel, K. 2011. Income and wealth accumulation of U.S. farm households. Applied Economics 43:1521-1533. Poudel, B., Paudel, K. and Zilberman, D. 2011. Agriculture productivity convergence: myth or reality. J. Agricultural and Applied Economics 43:143-156. Rosenberger, RS, Bell, LA, Champ, PA, and Smith, EL. 2012. Nonmarket economic values of forest insect pests: An updated literature review. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-275WWW. Fort Collins, CO: USDA, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Shaw, W.D. and R.T. Woodward. Water Management, Risk and Uncertainty: What Water Resource Managers Wish They Knew in the 21st Century. Western Economic Forum, 2010, 9 (2/Fall) -- published online April, 2011. Task 1-3: Analysis of Climate Change Issues Choi, S, B. Sohngen, and R. Alig. 2011. An assessment of the influence of bioenergy and marketed land amenity values on land uses in the Midwestern US. Ecological Economics. 70: 713-720 Doremus, H. and W. Michael Hanemann, "Clean Air Act Federalism as a Template for Climate-Change legislation" Chapter 9 in Edella C. Schlager, Kirsten H. Engel and Sally Rider (eds) Navigating Climate Change Policy, University of Arizona press 2011(in press). Fisher, A., Michael Hanemann, Michael Roberts and Wolfram Schlenker, "The Economic Impacts of Climate Change: Evidence from Agricultural Output and Random Fluctuations in Weather: Comment" American Economic Review 2011(in press). Haim, D., R.J. Alig, A.J. Plantinga, B. Sohngen. 2011. Climate Change and Future Land Use in the United States: An Economic Approach. Climate Change Economics 2(1): 27-51. Hanemann, M., Xavier Labandeira and Maria L. Loureio, Climate Change, Energy and Social preferences on Policies: Exploratory Evidence for Spain. Climatic Research 2011(in press). Rose, S. and B. Sohngen. 2011. Global Forest Carbon Sequestration and Climate Policy Design. Journal of Environment and Development Economics. 16(4): 429-454. Objective 2: Advances in Valuation Methods Task 2-1: Improving Validity and Efficiency in Benefit Transfers Gonzalez, J.M. and J. Loomis. 2011. Are Benefit Transfers Using a Joint Revealed and Stated Preference Model More Accurate than Revealed and Stated Preference Data Alone In Whitehead, Haab and Huang, eds. Preference Data for Environmental Valuation: Combining Revealed and Stated Preference Approaches. Routledge, NY. Task 2-2: Improving Valuation Methods and Technology Abbott, J.K. and Klaiber, H.A, 2011. An Embarrassment of Riches: Confronting Omitted Variable Bias and Multi-Scale Capitalization In Hedonic Price Models. The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol 93. Braden, J.B., Feng, X. and Won, D. 2011. Waste sites and property values: A meta-analysis. Environmental and Resource Economics, 50(2, 20-11): 175-201, DOI: 10.1007/s10640-011-9467-9. Kaplowitz, M.D., Lupi, F., Couper, M., and Thorp, L. 2011. The Effect of Invitation Design on Web Survey Response Rates. Social Science Computer Review. Kobayashi, Mimako, Klaus Moeltner and Kimberly Rollins 2012, Latent Threshold Analysis of Choice Data with Multiple Bids and Response Options, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 94(1):189-208 Klaiber, H.A. and V.K. Smith, 2011. Developing General Equilibrium Benefit Analyses for Social Programs: An Introduction and Example. Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. In Press. Klaiber, H.A. and Smith. V.K., 2011. Preference Heterogeneity and Non-Market Benefits: The Roles of Structural Hedonics and Sorting Models. In Jeff Bennett, editor, International Handbook on Non-Market Environmental Valuation, Edward Elgar. Kling, C.; List J. and J. Zhao. 2011. A Dynamic Explanation of the Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept Disparity. Economic Inquiry 49: doi: 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00368.x. Komarek, T.A., F. Lupi. M.D. Kaplowitz. 2011. Valuing Energy Policy Attributes for Environmental Management: Choice Experiment Evidence from a Research Institution. Energy Policy. 39: 5105-5115. Loomis, J., A. Gonzalez-Caban and J. Champ. 2011. Testing the Robustness of Contingent Valuation Estimates of WTP to Survey Mode and Treatment of Protest Responses. In J.Bennett, ed. International Handbook on Non-Market Environmental Valuation. Edward Elgar. Loomis, J. 2011. What's to Know about Hypothetical Bias in Stated Preference Valuation Surveys. Journal of Economic Surveys 25(2)L 363-370. Loomis. J. 2011. Incorporating Distributional Issues into Benefit Cost Analysis. Journal of Benefit Cost Analysis 2(1). Berkely Electronic Press. Loomis, J. 2011. A New Approach to Value Urban Recreation Using Visitors' Time Allocations. Urban Public Economic Reviews 14: 12-24. Messer, K.D., G.L. Poe and W.D. Schulze, 2011. The Value of Private Versus Public Risk and Pure Altruism: An Experiential Economic Test. Applied Economics 45:1089-1097. (Published on-line Dec. 2011) Poe, G.L. and C.A. Vossler, 2011. Consequentiality and Contingent Values: An Emerging Paradigm in J. Bennett ed., International Handbook on Non-Market Valuation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishers. Objective 3: Valuation of Ecosystem Services Task 3-1: Valuing Changes in Recreational Access Bowker, J.M., A. E. Askew, H.K. Cordell, J.C. Bergstrom. 2011. Outdoor Recreation in the South: Projections to 2060. In, Wear, D.N. and J.G. Greis, eds. The Southern Forest Futures Project: Technical Report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-xxx. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. (in press) Chen, X., Lupi, F., An, L., Sheely, R., Vina, A., Liu, J. 2011. Agent-based modeling of the effects of social norms on enrollment in payments for ecosystem services. Ecological Modeling. Kline, J.D, Rosenberger, R.S. and E.M. White. 2011. A National Assessment of Physical Activity in US National Forests. Journal of Forestry 109(6):343-351. Knoche, Scott, Lupi, Frank. 2011. The Economic Value of Publicly Accessible Deer Hunting Land. Journal of Wildlife Management. doi: DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.302 Majumdar, Suman., Yaoqi Zhang., Diane Hite. 2011. State attributes and destination choice by freshwater anglers: An analysis of the southeast United States. Tourism Economics. In press. Paudel, K., Caffey, R. and Devkota, N. 2011. An evaluation of factors affecting the choice of coastal recreational activities. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 43:167-179. Rosenberger, RS, Needham, MD, Morzillo, AT, and Moehrke, C. 2012. Attitudes, willingness to pay, and stated values for recreation use fees at an urban proximate forest. Journal of Forest Economics 18:271-281. Zegre, SJ, Needham, MD, Kruger, LE, and Rosenberger, RS. 2012. McDonaldization and commercial recreation and tourism in Alaska. Managing Leisure 17:333-348. Task 3-2: Valuing Changes in Ecosystem Services Flows Braden, J.B. and Ando, A.W. 2012. Economic costs, benefits, and achievability of low-impact development based stormwater regulations. In Economic Incentives for Stormwater Control, Ed. H.W. Thurston, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL., 2012, pp. 45-70. Cordell, H.K., V. Heboyan, F. Santos and J.C. Bergstrom. Natural Amenities and Rural Population Migration: A Technical Document Supporting the Forest Service 2010 RPA Assessment. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-146. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station, December, 2011. Hoehn, J. P. 2011. Economic Principles for Water Conservation Tariffs and Incentives. In: Jha Manoj, Water Conservation, InTech Publications, 2011. Jakus, P. M., Bergstrom, J. C., Phillips, M., & O'Brien, K. (2011). Preference Data for Environmental Valuation, In John Whitehead, Tim Haab, and Ju-Chin Huang (Ed.), Modeling Behavioral Changes in Reservoir Operations in the Tennessee Valley Region.. Routledge, New York, NY, p. 253-272. (Published). Paudel, K., Poudel, B., Bhandari, D. and Johnson, T. 2011. Examining the role of social capital in the environmental Kuznets curve estimation. Global J. Environmental Science and Technology 1:16. Dickinson,B.,Stevens,T.H.,Lindsay,M.M.,Kittredge,D.B. (2011),Estimated participation in US carbon sequestration programs:a study of NIPF landowners in Massachusetts, Journal of Forest Economics. Task 3-3: Valuing Changes in Water Quality Jakus, P.M., J.C. Bergstrom, M. Phillips and K. OBrien. Modeling Behavioral Response to Changes in Reservoir Operations in the Tennessee Valley Region Chapter17 in Whitehead, J., T. Haab and J-C Huang (Editors) Preference Data for Environmental Valuation, Routledge: London and New York, 2011.