Suchergebnisse

The number and size of wildfires in the western United States have increased dramatically in the last 30 years. The rising cost of wildfire suppression has become a significant concern for all levels of government, although most attention has been focused on the federal level. Much less is known about the financial impact of expenditures on states, which retain responsibility for suppression on over 480 million acres of state and private forests. This study collected data on state expenditures for wildfire suppression in the western United States from 2005 to 2015 to examine fiscal burdens and compare funding mechanisms used to cover those costs. Our analysis finds that western states expended $11.9 billion on wildfire suppression over the 11-year period and used own-source funds to cover 88 percent of these costs. States displayed a variety of mechanisms for covering their cost obligations with tradeoffs that may affect non-wildfire policy priorities.

24 pages ; The purpose of this working paper is to review research methods used to assess the influence of public policies on natural resource business decision-making. We describe a suite of research methods that have been used to assess policy impacts on businesses, highlighting their analytical advantages and disadvantages. We emphasize natural resource policies and businesses in our review, but also present literature from other fields as relevant. With this review we attempt to contribute to a greater ability to conduct evaluation for policies and programs targeting natural resource firms. ; This project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2013-67009-20396 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as well as through an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, agreement no. 13-CR-11261975-093.