Assessing the Value Extension Adds to Decision Making Among Natural Resources Leaders

Extension professionals face challenges in quantifying the impact of their efforts in advancing the decision-making process in natural resource policy. We developed a flexible tool that measures the impact of improving decision makers’ planning efforts. The tool consists of two sets of survey questions that can be modified to fit an extension program’s goals. We illustrated how to use this tool by surveying leaders working with private forest owners to help advance natural resource management. However, the tool can be of use to extension professionals across various program areas

Public Attitudes about Private Forest Management and Government Involvement in the Southeastern United States

In the southern United States the country’s top wood-producing region, factors such as intergenerational land transfer and population spillover from urban areas have resulted in forestland conversion and reduced production of critical ecosystem services associated with forest systems (e.g., timber, clean water supply, wildlife habitat). Public attitudes, which drive forestland policy prescriptions, may also be evolving due to the way people experience and perceive forests (e.g., recreation), and think about the role of government in private forest decisions. These changes have significant implications for forestland management and the forest-based economy, both locally and globally. We present the results of a regional survey (n = 1669) of residents in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina, which assessed attitudes toward timber harvesting and government involvement on private lands. We found significant public support for timber harvesting with a somewhat stronger focus on ecosystem maintenance compared to timber production, and strong support for policies that empower landowners (e.g., assistance programs) over regulatory strategies. We conclude that existing government policies and programs are failing to help landowners meet public demand for ecosystem service provision on private forest lands in the southeastern US. Public attitudes appear conducive to innovative policy strategies such as market-based solutions and nudges. Perceptions of forest health will likely be the metric the public and landowners will use in assessing the value of policy alternatives, in addition to economic impact. Public ignorance and indifference towards forest management also appear to be growing

Public Attitudes about Private Forest Management and Government Involvement in the Southeastern United States

In the southern United States the country’s top wood-producing region, factors such as intergenerational land transfer and population spillover from urban areas have resulted in forestland conversion and reduced production of critical ecosystem services associated with forest systems (e.g., timber, clean water supply, wildlife habitat). Public attitudes, which drive forestland policy prescriptions, may also be evolving due to the way people experience and perceive forests (e.g., recreation), and think about the role of government in private forest decisions. These changes have significant implications for forestland management and the forest-based economy, both locally and globally. We present the results of a regional survey (n = 1669) of residents in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina, which assessed attitudes toward timber harvesting and government involvement on private lands. We found significant public support for timber harvesting with a somewhat stronger focus on ecosystem maintenance compared to timber production, and strong support for policies that empower landowners (e.g., assistance programs) over regulatory strategies. We conclude that existing government policies and programs are failing to help landowners meet public demand for ecosystem service provision on private forest lands in the southeastern US. Public attitudes appear conducive to innovative policy strategies such as market-based solutions and nudges. Perceptions of forest health will likely be the metric the public and landowners will use in assessing the value of policy alternatives, in addition to economic impact. Public ignorance and indifference towards forest management also appear to be growing

Price Efficiency in U.S. Water Rights Markets

With this study we seek to understand the relationship between the sale and one-year lease prices in the U.S. water rights market. Given that the majority of current water rights markets in the U.S. are informal, high in transaction costs, and heterogeneous within and across states, we do not expect for the asset pricing theory to completely explain high variation in prices. Our goal is to understand which part of the pricing can be explained by the arbitrage theory and which part should be attributed to the expectations about the future conditions. Using a unique water rights trading dataset, which consists of water rights sales and one-year leases in six U.S. western states between 1994 and 2007, we follow the Newell et al. (2007) approach applied to New Zealand fisheries, and econometrically analyze the applicability of a present-value asset pricing model to the water rights markets. Our preliminary results show that the asset pricing theory holds in water rights markets, and support our hypothesis that the U.S. water rights market is less efficient than the fishing quota market in New Zealand. We further analyze what policies lead to different water rights pricing mechanisms across and within the studied states