Evan Hjerpe

Conservation Economics Institute

The amenity migration phenomenon and outdoor recreation growth has led to rapid amenity-based development of many gateway communities in the American West, particularly in regions adjacent to protected public lands. This amenity-based development typically enhances traditional regional economic indicators of income, employment, and taxes but can re...

Local and state governments use impact fees to pay for the costs of development. Impact fees improve economic efficiency by internalizing external costs such as the loss of open space and the increased truck traffic that compromises local public infrastructure. Colorado recently expanded the use of impact fees to cover the reasonably foreseeable di...

Research from economists at Conservation Economics Institute examining the economic effects of President Biden's Executive Order pausing oil and gas leasing for on-shore Federal public land in the western United States.

Forest restoration positively affects rural economies by facilitating employment and income generation with logging, wood utilization, and other restoration activities. To investigate economic effects and modeling of forest restoration, a regional contribution analysis of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) in Arizona was conducted. With...

Rural amenity migration, or the relocation for quality of life purposes as opposed to monetary enhancement, has been occurring for decades and has been particularly pronounced in the American West where the phenomenon peaked in the 1990s. Researchers have illustrated that some places are more attractive for migrants than others and that certain reg...

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northeastern Minnesota contains more than a million acres of connected lakes and rivers. As one of the most heavily visited U.S. Wilderness areas, the BWCAW represents an ecosystem managed primarily for conservation values that also has a substantial regional economic impact. This combination of...

The White Mountain Stewardship Project (WMSP) was the first forest stewardship project of its size and duration, lasting 10 years (2004-2014). Based on in-depth interviews of local businesses, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service staff, and stakeholders, we present an assessment of the WMSP and lessons learned in large-scale contracti...

A technical review prepared for The Wilderness Society. Report is available at www.conservationecon.org

The White Mountain Stewardship Project (WMSP) was the first forest stewardship project of its size and duration, lasting 10 years (2004–2014). Based on in-depth interviews of local businesses, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service staff, and stakeholders, we present an assessment of the WMSP and lessons learned in large-scale contracti...

In the fire-prone Western U.S., the scale of surrounding forest density can be realized by homebuyers as an amenity for aesthetics and cooling effects, or as a disamenity in terms of wildfire risk. There has been a lack of academic attention to understanding this duality of forest density preferences for homebuyers in at-risk Wildland Urban Interfa...

Forest ecosystems contribute to human welfare in important ways, but because of the nonmarket nature of many of the goods and services produced, both markets and governments fail to optimize their production commensurate with their economic and ecological significance. Despite the recent proliferation of nonmarket environmental valuation in the lit...

Wilderness attracts tourists and generates visitor spending in proximate communities as people enjoy Wilderness for outdoor recreation. Wilderness also attracts amenity migrants and out-of-region investments into surrounding regional economies. To investigate the amount and types of employment and income generated by Wilderness visitation, we condu...

Early applications of wilderness economic research demonstrated that the values of natural amenities and commodities produced from natural areas could be measured in commensurate terms. To the surprise of many, the economic values of wilderness protection often exceeded the potential commercial values that might result from resource extraction. Her...

Ecosystem conservation programs are increasingly incorporating both preservation and restoration strategies for ensuring the flow of ecosystem services from public lands. While preservation and restoration have similar end ecological objectives, differences in these conservation types may create systematic variation in willingness to pay (WTP) for...

STEWARDSHIP I feel at home, yet somewhat out of place. I am with a group of ecologists and students learning about fire ecology, deep in the Bob Marshall Wilderness below Glacier National Park in Montana. As a forest economist, I am comfortable with measuring trees and investigating the impacts of recent forest fires, but I feel a bit out my comfor...

In this study, I examine the regional economic impacts spurred by the Tongass timber sale program and the ecological effects of old growth logging. Additionally, I estimate the regional economic impacts and changes in ecosystem services that would result from reallocating Tongass timber sale program funds to alternate forest management comprised of...

The late Kenneth Boulding contended, “Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately it also brought mortis.” Although it would be fair to say that economics is not the only discipline suffering from this type of rigor mortis, the public’s disappointment with mainstream economic theory has been more pronounced because of mainstream economic...

Ecological restoration is a practice of hope; hope because restorationists envision a better future as a result of their efforts. Ecological restoration is a practice of faith; faith because restorationists work in a world of uncertainty. Finally, ecological restoration is a practice of love; love because restorationists care about, and give their...

In this book, the authors have revealed aspects of their faith, hope, and love for nature and the countless varieties of beings, including humans, who inhabit it. From our vantage point, the ideas of these authors suggest that there are three general fields restoration practitioners must take seriously if they hope to foster success in the complex...

ABStRAct There is general consensus that ecological restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine systems is necessary and there exists ample ecological science suggesting that it is physically attainable. However, the pace of restoration has been noticeably slow and is far from approaching the landscape level. We conducted a review of published journ...

Fuels reduction programs aimed at reducing wildfire risk are increasing on national forests of the American Southwest. Incorporating both mechanical thinning and prescribed burning, fuels reduction projects can decrease the intensity and frequency of wildfires but also provide economic benefits to regional economies, businesses, and individuals. Th...

Economic impact analysis (EIA) of outdoor recreation can provide critical social information concerning the utilization of natural resources. Outdoor recreation and other non-consumptive uses of resources are viewed as environmentally friendly alternatives to extractive-type industries. While outdoor recreation can be an appropriate use of resource...

An economic assessment of an SLP5000 Diesel Micromill® was conducted to determine the maintenance and operation costs and the logistics of a mobile sawmill used to process small-diameter ponderosa pine. The Micromill® was first introduced in 1997 and has since received considerable attention. In 2003, the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Rese...

The purpose of this study is to understand how variable flows of the Colorado River affect the economic operations of recreation-based industries, and their extended effects on the regional economy. The investigation is focused on changes in economic impacts due to the Low Summer Steady Flows (LSSF) of the Colorado River on private whitewater boate...

"May 2003." Thesis (M.S.)--Northern Arizona University, 2003. Includes bibliographical references and abstract.