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Why do recreational carrying capacity standards change over time? When shared evaluative standards change at a recreational destination, what are the social processes that might lead people to eval...

We estimated Colorado households’ nonmarket values for two forest management options for reducing intensity of future wildfires and associated nonmarket environmental effects wildfires. The first policy is the traditional harvesting of pine beetle-killed trees and burning of the slash piles of residual materials on-site. The second involves harvesting but moving the residual material off-site and converting it into biochar, thus reducing some of the risk and environmental effects associated with burning on-site. A contingent valuation method mail survey was used to evaluate these two management options. The survey achieved a 47% response rate. We used a nonparametric Turnbull estimator to calculate the willingness to pay (WTP) for burn on-site and off-site biochar conversion. The calculated WTP for burn on-site and off-site biochar conversion options (beyond the cost of the status quo level of forest treatment) is $411 and $470 per household per year, respectively.

Uncertainty as to the extent and magnitude of changes in conditions that might occur due to climate change poses a problem for land and resource managers as they seek to adapt to changes and mitigate effects of climate variability. We illustrate using scenarios of projected future conditions on rangelands in the Northern Great Plains and Desert Southwest of the United States. These two regions are different in the ways climate change is projected to affect the regions. Projection of a longer and warmer growing season in the Northern Great Plains could lead to increased forage production and land productivity. Highly uncertain effects on summer monsoons that primarily control rangeland productivity in the Desert Southwest, combined with the possibility of more intense and/or frequent drought events, could present land managers with challenges stemming from decreased forage production and land productivity. Climate projections, though uncertain, provide land managers with basic insight into future conditions they might encounter. They need more. A focus on vulnerability and resilience, with explicit recognition of interactions between ecological and socio‐economic factors, coupled with systematic monitoring and assessment of observable conditions on the land to supplement information based on climate projections, will more effectively provide critical and specific information managers need to adaptively manage rangelands under uncertain climate futures.

Thermochemical biomass conversion systems have the potential to produce heat, power, fuels and other products from forest biomass at distributed scales that meet the needs of some forest industry facilities. However, many of these systems have not been deployed in this sector and the products they produce from forest biomass have not been adequately described or characterized with regards to chemical properties, possible uses, and markets. This paper characterizes the producer gas, biochar, and activated carbon of a 700 kg h−1 prototype gasification system and a 225 kg h−1 pyrolysis system used to process coniferous sawmill and forest residues. Producer gas from sawmill residues processed with the gasifier had higher energy content than gas from forest residues, with averages of 12.4 MJ m−3 and 9.8 MJ m−3, respectively. Gases from the pyrolysis system averaged 1.3 MJ m−3 for mill residues and 2.5 MJ m−3 for forest residues. Biochars produced have similar particle size distributions and bulk density, but vary in pH and carbon content. Biochars from both systems were successfully activated using steam activation, with resulting BET surface area in the range of commercial activated carbon. Results are discussed in the context of co-locating these systems with forest industry operations.

More diverse sources of energy are needed for countries to progress toward energy independence and to meet future food production needs. The US Task Force on Strategic Unconventional Fuels concluded that to achieve this objective it is essential to develop a domestic unconventional fuels industry. Rangelands, which cover 50% to 70% of the earth’s terrestrial surface and dominate much of the western half of the United States, represent a major source of alternative energy resources. A framework to systematically identify biophysical-socioeconomic links that influence the delivery of ecosystem services affected by alternative uses of rangelands has been lacking. The Integrated Social, Economic, and Ecological Conceptual framework was developed by the Sustainable Rangeland Roundtable to address this deficiency. We apply this framework to demonstrate how the effect on ecosystem services of exploiting rangeland-based biofuel, natural gas, and wind energy resources can be systematically compared. We also demonstrate the use of this framework for selecting suitable indicators to monitor changes in the biophysical-socioeconomic links affected by the development of these unconventional energy sources. This type of approach can potentially enhance coordination between federal, state, and local agencies that are attempting to set polices and regulations for the sustainable development of unconventional energy resources on rangelands.

Rangeland Ecosystem Goods and Services: Values and Evaluation of Opportunities for Ranchers and Land Managers DOI:10.2458/azu_rangelands_v33i5_maczko

In recent years mountain pine beetles (MPB), Dendroctonus ponderosae, along with several other bark beetle species, have severely damaged coniferous forests in the western United States (U.S.) and Canada (Morris and Walls, 2009). Colorado provides one example of a region that has been heavily affected. The Colorado State Forest Service estimates that 769,000 ha of Colorado's forests, of all jurisdictions, have been infested with MPB since the outbreak began in 1996 (Leatherman, 2009). An important consequence of this damage is declining utility (i.e. a reduction in the level of satisfaction derived from goods and services, both market and nonmarket) for residents of the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Specifically, beetle infestations lower utility by reducing the value of forest amenities and increasing the risk of wildfire. We use a hedonic pricing model to estimate willingness-to-pay (WTP) to prevent MPB damage in Grand County, Colorado. The hedonic model establishes a statistical relationship between property prices and various characteristics. In this case, the characteristic of interest is the number of trees killed by MPB infestations. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to determine the number of these trees within 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 kilometer buffers of each property. Marginal implicit prices for MPB damage are calculated, after controlling for structural and spatial characteristics. Results indicate that property values decline by $648, $43, and $17 for every tree killed by MPB infestations within a 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 km buffer, respectively.

Currently, there is no standard method to assess the complex systems in rangeland ecosystems. Decision makers need baselines to create a common language of current rangeland conditions and standards for continued rangeland assessment. The Sustainable Rangeland Roundtable (SRR), a group of private and public organizations and agencies, has created a forum to discuss rangeland sustainability and assessment. The SRR has worked to integrate social, economic, and ecological disciplines related to rangelands and has identified a standard set of indicators that can be used to assess rangeland sustainability. As part of this process, SRR has developed a two-tiered conceptual framework from a systems perspective to study the validity of indicators and the relationships among them. The first tier categorizes rangeland characteristics into four states. The second tier defines processes affecting these states through time and space. The framework clearly shows that the processes affect and are affected by each other.

Forests provide non-market goods and services that people are implicitly willing to pay for through hedonic housing and labor markets. But it is unclear if compensating differentials arise in these markets at the regional level. This empirical question is addressed in a study of Arizona and New Mexico. Hedonicregressionsofhousingpricesandwagesusing census and geographic data show that forest area carries an implicit price of between $27 and $36 per square mile annually. Compensating differentials at the regional level suggest that care must be taken when applying the travel cost method to value regionallydelineated characteristics. (JEL Q23, R14)

Tests of convergent validity and procedural invariance were used to investigate whether individuals lacking direct experience with a commodity can provide valid responses to contingent-valuation questions eliciting ex post use values. Convergent validity between samples with and without experience was shown to hold for dichotomous-choice responses, but not for open-ended responses.

This paper discusses an experiment in which the value for an unfamiliar environmental good, whose total value has a large nonuse component, is verified using a revealed-preference method. As we were unable to observe preferences via an incentive compatible mechanism, we collected voluntary contributions toward the provision of the good. We make a case for interpreting these contributions as a “theoretical lower bound” on the value of the public good and estimate the lower bound. We also investigate whether we can use contingent donation data to estimate such lower bounds on values. We used a follow-up to the contingent donation question about the respondent's level of certainty with respect to her response to the contingent donation question. The results of this study suggest that use of the follow-up certainty question to differentiate respondents who would actually donate from those who would not is a promising approach to estimating a lower bound to Hicksian surplus measures.

In response to critiques of contingent valuation (CV) (Hausman), the "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Panel on Contingent Valuation" (Arrow et al.), among other pronouncements, suggested the use of referendum, or dichotomous-choice (DC), questions "to assure reliability and usefulness of the information obtained" (p. 4608).1 The suggestion to use DC questions may be questionable because empirical evidence suggests that responses to DC questions may be influenced by the magnitude of the bid stimuli that survey participants are asked to consider (Herriges and Shogren, Holmes and Kramer, Kanninen). Given this evidence, it is logical to ask whether the magnitude of the bid inadvertently introduces an experimental error in welfare estimates derived from single-bounded, dichotomous-choice (SBDC) questions. Unfortunately, SBDC questions do not provide enough information to isolate an anchoring effect due the proffered bid. We propose an approach that uses information on what respondents' answers might have been in the absence of bid stimuli to identify the possibility of anchoring in SBDC questions. This information allows for a test of whether bids act solely as neutral stimuli, act solely as anchors, or act as both stimuli and anchors.

Test-retest, the standard method used to investigate reliability of contingent valuation, is limited because when the time period between the two surveys is relatively short the study may exhibit testing recall. Conversely, when the time between the two surveys increases there is an increased chance the true value will change. The test-retest design cannot isolate these effects. Independent pretest and posttest control groups allow testing of reliability even when recall occurs or the true value changes. Using this design, we found ex post estimates of Hicksian surplus are reliable regardless of whether respondents have direct experience with an activity.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Likewise, if a nonmarket valuation study is done and it is not used to affect or inform policy or management, does it serve a purpose? Previous chapters in this book have gone into detail about how to implement specific nonmarket valuation techniques. After reading all those chapters, one might reasonably ask: Who cares? Do these methods make a difference in the real world of policy and management decisions related to resource allocation? answer is ... well, sometimes.

Though CVM has won considerable acceptance among U.S. economic researchers and decision-makers, it remains controversial. Traditionally, only so-called revealed-preference measures of value, i.e., those based on data from actual market commitments of money, were considered to be valid evidence about economic values. Those advocating CVM are proposing that responses to survey questions about economic values be accepted as well. Both economists and psychologists have greeted this proposal with considerable skepticism. Economic theory leads economists to expect that people will find it in their self-interest to intentionally give misleading responses when asked about their values for public goods (Samuelson 1954). Psychologists have come to CVM with their own reasons for skepticism, thinking that people may have trouble constructing accurate estimates of their values in response to survey questions (Fischhoff and Furby 1988). If these concerns have not yet been voiced in Italy, they soon will.

In keeping with our assignment, this paper will focus on measurement. We will devote far less time to the microeconomic theory of non-use values than many readers might expect. Non-use values are now well entrenched in the theory of the consumer (Krutilla 1967; Randall and Stoll 1983; Madariaga and McConnell 1987; Boyle and Bishop 1987; Smith 1987; Bishop and Welsh 1992; Freeman 1993). We shall want to briefly review the theory as a foundation for what will follow, but need not dwell on it at length. The central focus will instead be on measurement.

The value of public land forage has been of key interest since grazing fees were first established on federal lands. Additionally, knowing the value of rangeland forage is important for assessing the economics of range improvements, grazing systems, and alternative land uses. It is important for resource value comparisons and impact assessments when public land forage is allocated to other uses. In this synthesis paper, we review the various methods that have been used to value public land forage and discuss the advantages and limitations of each. We highlight that past valuation efforts have concentrated on the value of public land forage for livestock production and, consequently, underestimated total forage value and rancher willingness to pay for forage and grazing permits. These research efforts failed to recognize that amenity and lifestyle attributes from ranch ownership and forage leasing play important roles in the use and pricing of rangeland forage. We review the numerous studies conducted to estimate public land forage value and suggest modifications to improve future value estimates. Because lifestyle attributes of ranch ownership have so strongly influenced ranch values and what ranchers are willing to pay for grazing use on public lands, we find the market value of federal grazing permits and a modification of the standard contingent valuation method for valuing non-market goods to hold the greatest promise for valuing public land grazing. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v55i5_bartlett

Independent applications of open-ended and dichotomous-choice formats are compared using tests of means, estimating joint likelihood functions and nonparametric tests of distributions. The null hypothesis of no difference in the open-ended and dichotomous-choice estimates of central tendency cannot be rejected for two out of three data sets, while estimated standard deviations are significantly different for all three data sets. In addition, actual dichotomous-choice means and standard deviations exceed those from comparable synthetic dichotomous-choice data sets, suggesting either open-ended questions underestimate values or dichotomous-choice bid structures may lead to systematic overestimates.

Seceral contingent valuation studies hace found that the open-ended format yields lower estimates of willingness to pay (WTP) than does the closed-ended, or dichotomous choice, format. In this study, WTP for a public encironmental good was estimated under four conditions: actual payment in response to open-ended and closed-ended requests, and hypothetical payment in response to open-ended and closed-ended requests. The experimental results, showing that the response format mattered far more for hypothetical than for actual payments, support conclusions about the reasons that the dichotomous choice format yields larger estimates of hypothetical WTP, conclusions that hinge on the hypothetical nature of contingent valuation.

This study applies benefit‐cost analysis to one area of prenatal diagnosis— amniocentesis. The ultimate purpose of such a study is to provide useful guidelines to policy makers. An attempt is made to exhaustively list benefits and costs, whether measurable or not. Those which can be quantified are estimated. On the basis of these benefit‐cost estimates, the study concludes that a program of amniocentesis for all pregnant women beyond age 32 would be warranted. This economic analysis, however, is only one aspect of a policy decision. Moral, legal, and ethical questions must also be considered.