Spencer Phillips

Information on the economic benefits of natural resource improvement is an important, yet often overlooked, consideration in environmental decision-making. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) that set regulatory limits for nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment needed to restore th...

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...

LET’S STIPULATE THAT RELIGIOUS EPIPHANY requires an understanding of one’s relationship to the divine … to the creator … to God. I would further submit that this understanding is fundamentally a matter of humility. Humility is the recognition that we are not masters of the universe—not even of our own little corners of it—and that we need something...

Abstract—Land is a composite good, the price of which varies with its characteristics, including proximity to amenities. Using data from,sales of land ,near Green Mountain ,National Forest wilderness areas in a hedonic price model, a positive relationship between proximity,to protected ,wilderness ,and ,market ,values ,is revealed. The applications...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) reports a likely 2 °C to 4.5 °C temperature rise in the upcoming decades. This warming is likely to affect ecosystems and their ability to provide services that benefit human well-being. Ecosystem services valuation (ESV), meanwhile, has emerged as a way to recognize the economic value emb...

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-91).