Selecting Biological Reserves Cost-Effectively: An Application to Terrestrial Vertebrate Conservation in Oregon

Concerns that the loss of habitat have greatly increased species extinction rates has led to calls for establishing biological re- serves to preserve key habitat. In this paper, we study reserve site selection for terrestrial verte- brates in Oregon using data on species ranges and land values. We ® nd cost-effective strategies that represent a maximum number of species for a given conservation budget. By varying the bud- get, we ® nd the cost of obtaining various levels of representation. In general, effective conservation decision-making requires integrated analysis of both biological and economic data. (JEL Q20)