Kathleen Patricia Bell

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Maine

Context Urban-rural gradients are useful tools when examining the influence of human disturbances on ecological, social and coupled systems, yet the most commonly used gradient definitions are based on single broad measures such as housing density or percent forest cover that fail to capture landscape patterns important for conservation. Objective...

Temporary wetlands are characterized by frequent drying resulting in a unique, highly specialized assemblage of often rare or specialized plant and animal species. They are found on all continents and in a variety of landscape settings. Although accurate estimates of the abundance of temporary wetlands are available in only a few countries, global...

We examined broad-scale patterns in family forest owners’ decisions to use estate planning and conservation tools, and participate in preferential tax programs in eight forested landscapes of the United States. We focused our analyses on patterns across regions and states, and scrutinized the impacts of adding regional and state fixed effects to di...

Maintaining forest cover and function given large-scale changes in population distribution, infrastructure, and regional economies represents a formidable societal challenge. Land architecture assumes landscape structures are collective outcomes of land-use decision-making, including how individual decisions about forest management reflect local, r...

Sustainability science uses a transdisciplinary research process in which academic and non-academic partners collaborate to identify a common problem and co-produce knowledge to develop more sustainable solutions. Sustainability scientists have advanced the theory and practice of facilitating collaborative efforts such that the knowledge created is...

Much of the family-forest-owned land in the United States is expected to change hands as current ownerships grow older and pass on their holdings. To date, little research has been conducted on this ownership decision. Using mail survey data from the northeastern United States, we explore family-forest-owner (FFO) legacy planning. We summarized FFO...

Collaborations between researchers and stakeholders can facilitate novel and effective approaches to addressing water resource management challenges, such as restoring river systems. Managing the boundary between researchers and stakeholders is key to ensuring the credibility (produced by scientific inquiry), salience (value to stakeholders), and l...

Our research explored the social dimension of river restoration by examining amenity development as a social response within two watersheds at different biophysical restoration states in Maine, USA. Our research provided the first systematic examination of progress in achieving federal- and state-regulated water quality improvements at an individua...

Sparsely settled forests (SSF) are poorly studied, coupled natural and human systems involving rural communities in forest ecosystems that are neither largely uninhabited wildland nor forests on the edges of urban areas. We developed and applied a multidisciplinary approach to define, map, and examine changes in the spatial extent and structure of...

Forested lands produce a multitude of societal benefits, and landowner decisions influence the provision of these benefits over space and time. The fate of over half of the 330 million hectares of forestland in the United States (U.S.) rests in the hands of private ownerships, and over 35% of U.S. forestland is owned by families. Landowner estate p...

How and why small municipalities promote sustainability through planning efforts is poorly understood. We analyzed ordinances in 451 Maine municipalities and tested theories of policy adoption using regression analysis.We found that smaller communities do adopt programs that contribute to sustainability relevant to their scale and context. In line...

Special Issue on the Economics of Changing Coastal Resources: The Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems. - Volume 46 Issue 2 - Mario F. Teisl, Kathleen P. Bell, Caroline L. Noblet

We investigate allocation of funds by citizens across management options addressing impairments to coastal water quality. We study systematic variation in citizen allocation of funds to adaptive versus preventative strategies including the impact of referundum choices and test whether allocations will be impacted by cuing in the design of the refer...

We estimate a bivariate probit model using data from a survey of Maine and New Hampshire beachgoers to (i) assess the impact of exposure to and contact with beach waters on safety information-seeking behaviors, and (ii) compare information-seeking behaviors for surf conditions and water quality information. We find that individuals who engage in ce...

Small natural features (SNFs), landscape elements that influence species persistence and ecological functioning on a much larger scale than one would expect from their size, can also offer a greater rate of return on conservation investment compared to that of larger natural features or more broad-based conservation. However, their size and perceiv...

Sustaining coupled natural and human systems requires multiple forms of knowledge, experiences, values, and resources be brought into conversation to address sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research partnerships provide the opportunity to meet this requirement by bringing together interdisciplinary scientists with stakeholders in some...

How watershed collaborations adapt to changing conditions is an enduring question in collaborative resource management. Our research examined the goals and structure of collaborations within watersheds subject to the same federal and state regulations, but at different restoration states. We employed semistructured interviews, document analysis, an...

Scenarios of future outcomes often provide context for policy decisions and can be a form of science communication, translating complex and uncertain relationships into stories for a broader audience. We conducted a survey experiment (n = 270) to test the effects of reading land use change scenarios on willingness to participate in land use plannin...

Temporary closures of polluted coastal waters to shellfish harvesting protect human health but also generate broad socioeconomic impacts on rural, fishing-dependent communities. Improved understanding of these impacts could help coastal managers prioritize investments to protect water quality and mitigate the effects of coastal pollution. Using a r...

Given the complexity and multiplicity of goals in natural resource governance, it is not surprising that policy debates are often characterized by contention and competition. Yet at times adversaries join together to collaborate to find creative solutions not easily achieved in polarizing forums. We employed qualitative interviews and a quantitativ...

We describe the use of linked land-use and forest sector models to simulate the effects of carbon offset sales on private forest owners' land-use and forest management decisions in western Oregon (USA). Our work focuses on forest management decisions rather than afforestation, allows full forest sector price adjustment to land-use changes, and inco...

Using a socioecological systems perspective, we advance a conceptual approach for characterizing tra- jectories of change in rural forest-based communities. We call attention to “communities in the middle,” communities positioned within forested regions representing neither unpopulated wilderness nor heavily urbanized or densely populated places on...

As the magnitude, complexity, and urgency of many sustainability problems increase, there is a growing need for universities to contribute more effectively to problem solving. Drawing upon prior research on social-ecological systems, knowledge-action connections, and organizational innovation, we developed an integrated conceptual framework for str...

Significance We address a key sustainability challenge: management of natural resources on private land. Managing small natural features, such as vernal pools, on private land presents unique problems but also unique opportunities to provide benefits to both nature and society. Our innovative approach to management and research described here uses...

Humans exposed to methylmercury (MeHg) can suffer from adverse health impacts, e.g., serious neurological damage; however, fish is also a good source of omega-3 fish oils which promotes infants' neurological development. Because eating fish is the primary mechanism of MeHg exposure, federal and state agencies issue fish consumption advisories to in...

Building successful, enduring research partnerships is essential for improving links between knowledge and action to address sustainability challenges. Communication research can play a critical role in fostering more effective research partnerships, especially those concerned with knowledge co-production processes. This article focuses on communit...

Sustainability science is an emerging field directed at advancing sustainable development. Informed by recent scholarship and institutional experiments, we identify key roles for economists and encourage their greater participation in this research. Our call to collaborative action comes from positive experiences with the Sustainability Solutions I...

Managers, policymakers, non-government organizations and community groups are increasingly relying on stakeholder participation to bolster lake management efforts. The growing portfolio of lake-focused stakeholder engagement cases offers valuable information about the efficacy of alternative stakeholder engagement strategies. While attention has be...

The emergence and behaviour of local institutions are of increasing interest as managers, policy-makers and communities assess the potential for these institutions to supplement conventional resource management approaches. Lake associations are local organizations that address management issues using informal and voluntary strategies and stress sta...

Producing knowledge and linking it to actions that meet human needs while preserving the planet’s life-support systems is among the great challenges facing society. Such sustainability challenges are also “wicked problems”, because they are difficult to define, resist generalization and involve diverse stakeholders with divergent perceptions and va...

Small-scale forests are an excellent example of coupled social-ecological systems, which involve human and biophysical subsystems with complex two-way feedback interactions. The multifaceted nature of landowner decisions drives a significant need to better understand decision-making processes, reactions to policy, and combined impacts on ecosystems...

Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maine have adopted regulatory zones around seasonal (vernal) pools to conserve terrestrial habitat for pool-breeding amphibians. Most amphibians require access to distinct seasonal habitats in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems because of their complex life histories. These habitat requirements make...

The authors discuss how Maine’s Sustainability Solu­tions Initiative (SSI) can contribute to economic devel­opment in the state. SSI research is covering five of the seven targeted technology areas identified in recent reports as being important for economic development in the state (forestry and agriculture, environmental, information, composites,...

Cluster Subdivisions are intended to create open space in proximity to residential areas, but there is growing recognition that they do little to ensure connectivity between these areas. Conservation Subdivisions, in which open space is designed around proactively identified areas of high ecological value, have been proposed as a means to ensure a...

The hemlock woolly adelgid is an invasive insect that is damaging hemlock forests in the eastern United States. Several control methods are available but forest managers are constrained by cost, availability, and environmental concerns. As a result forest managers must decide how to allocate limited conservation resources over heterogeneous landsca...

This study estimates the economic losses attributable to a nonindigenous forest insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid ( Adelges tsuga ), using cross-sectional and difference-in-difference hedonic price models. The data span a decade of residential property value transactions in West Milford, New Jersey. Hemlock health in naturally regenerated hemlock...

Common-pool resource problems can arise in aquatic systems such as lakes, rivers, and open coastlines where individual land-use decisions produce collective, emergent effects at the watershed scale. A body of highly generalized modeling experiments has illustrated ways in which simple, opposing tendencies among individuals---imitative versus self-i...

As researchers and policy-makers confront the challenges of and opportunities for improving natural resource management, increasing attention is being given to the dynamics of coupled natural-human systems. Interdisciplinary study of these coupled systems has generated considerable research and management innovations. Among these are more intensive...

This paper examines the impact of arsenic contamination of groundwater on sale prices of residential properties and bare land transactions in two Maine towns, Buxton and Hollis, that rely on private wells to supply their drinking water. Prompted by tests of well water by the state of Maine, media attention focused on the communities in 1993 and 199...

Given that the costs and benefits of tourism are not uniformly distributed across space, knowledge of how residents perceive tourism both within their own community and from a broader regional perspective is needed to inform tourism-based economic development plans. This study explores the role of physical distance from tourism on resident attitude...

The amenity value of proximity to a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in central Middlesex County, Massachusetts is estimated and compared to the values of proximity to five other open space types, including agricultural land, cemeteries, conservation land, golf courses, and sport/recreation parks. A hedonic model is used to explore the relationships...

The emergence of urban-rural space, as evidenced by the expansion of low-density exurban areas and growth of amenity-based rural areas, is characterized by the merging of a rural landscape form with urban economic function. Changing economic conditions, including waning transportation and communication costs, technological change and economic restr...

The past decade has evidenced growing concern with the causes and consequences of biological invasions, many of which are economic in nature (Perrings et al. 2002). The risk of a new pest introduction is positively correlated with world trade flows (Costello and McAusland 2003, Margolis et al. 2005) and new invasions threaten the productivity and b...

Residential growth pressures have arrived at the edge of Maine’s North Woods. Kathleen Bell in this article examines changes in the economics of rural land use in Maine. She notes that public debate over Plum Creek’s proposal for development in the Moosehead region reminds us that we need to increase our understanding of the interactions between re...

This paper examines public preferences for natural resource lands by exploring over a decade of ballot initiatives related to land management in Maine. Results of each ballot initiative are scrutinized to examine factors that significantly influenced voting outcomes and to compare and contrast outcomes over time, space, and type of proposed land ma...

This paper examines the effects of local workforce creativity on county-level earnings. Descriptive analysis of the data shows that most of the high-creativity counties in the United States are part of metropolitan areas, and that employee earnings are high in these places. Regression results indicate that, other things being equal, workforce creat...

Controlling for spatial effects in micro-level studies of consumer and producer behaviour necessitates a range of analytical modifications. These range from modest changes in data collection and the definition of variables to dramatic changes in the modelling of consumer and producer decision-making. This paper discusses conceptual, empirical and d...

This paper presents a case study of the economic damages to homeowners in a northern New Jersey community due to an exotic forest insect—the hemlock woolly adelgid. Hedonic property value methods are used to estimate the effect of hemlock health on property values. A statistically significant relationship between hemlock health and residential prop...

This paper investigates the effects of local fiscal policy on the location decisions of 3,763 establishments that began operations in Maine between 1993 and 1995. Empirical results, estimated from Poisson and negative binomial regression models, indicate that businesses favor municipalities that spend high amounts on public goods and services, even...

Numerous studies have concluded that better use of scientific information could improve the quality of coastal and estuarine environmental management. Approaches for effecting such a change include ecosystem-based, integrated, and adaptive management, but such basic re-orientation of estuarine and coastal management has proved difficult to achieve....

This paper explores social, and economic aspects of coastal communities crucial to the management of estuaries in the Pacific Northwest. These aspects include the changing demographics and economies of coastal communities, and the public perceptions, attitudes, and values pertaining to estuarine ecosystems. Information from Willapa Bay and Grays Ha...

When employing travel cost models, the unit cost of the essential input (travel) in the household’ s production of a recreation experience is central to obtaining the preference structure for the recreational good. However, little attention has been given to the choice of the route although the route defines the monetary and time costs used to comp...

Salmon restoration and enhancement are dominant environmental policy issues in Oregon and Washington. In response to salmon species listings under the Endangered Species Act, salmon protection and recovery actions are being implemented throughout the Pacific Northwest at substantial opportunity costs. In this paper, we examine the willingness to pa...

As many local and state governments in the United States grapple with increasing growth pressures, the need to understand the economic and institutional factors underlying these pressures has taken on added urgency. From an economic perspective, individual land use decisions play a central role in the manifestation of growth pressures, as changes i...

This paper describes micro-economic models of land use change applicable to the rural-urban interface in the US. Use of a spatially explicit micro-level modelling approach permits the analysis of regional patterns of land use as the aggregate outcomes of many, disparate individual land use decisions distributed across space. In contrast to the mode...

This paper describes micro-economic models of land use change applicable to the rural-urban interface in the US. Use of a spatially explicit micro-level modelling approach permits the analysis of regional patterns of land use as the aggregate outcomes of many, disparate individual land use decisions distributed across space. In contrast to the mode...

The application of spatial econometrics techniques to microlevel data of firms or households is problematic because of potentially large sample sizes and more-complicated spatial weight matrices. This paper provides the first application to actual household-level data of a new generalized-moments (GM) estimation technique developed by Kelejian and...

Many environmental problems have a strong spatial component. There may also be a spatial pattern to the regulatory actions taken to solve the problem, if the resource in question either falls under the management of multiple jurisdictions or is affected by decisions of agents subject to different jurisdictions’ policies. In no area is spatial patte...

We are attempting to integrate ecological and economic modeling and analysis in order to improve our understanding of regional systems, assess potential future impacts of various land-use, development, and agricultural policy options, and to better assess the value of ecological systems. Starting with an existing spatially articulated ecosystem mod...

This research focuses on the interactions between land-use and lake water quality and strives to provide scientific research to support practical management decisions. Two types of modeling are combined to address lake water quality in Maine's changing landscape. First, an economic model of land conversion to residential use is estimated using stat...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland at College Park, 1997. Thesis research directed by Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-172).