GC004-0004
Ecosystem services of forest restoration in the Western U.S.: a synthesis of benefits to enable financing
Monday, 7 December 2020
Poster
Kimberly Quesnel1, Micah Elias2, Philip C Saksa3, Peter Wyrsch4, Abby Gritter4, Kyle S Hemes5, David Lewis6, Rachael Cleveland6, Kirsten Oleson7, Nicolas Goncalves8, Catherine Keske8, Han Guo8, Martha H Conklin9 and Roger C Bales10, (1)Stanford University, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford, CA, United States, (2)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, United States, (3)UC Merced, Merced, CA, United States, (4)Blue Forest Conservation, Sacramento, CA, United States, (5)Stanford University, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford, CA, United States, (6)University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, United States, (7)University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, United States, (8)University of California Merced, Merced, United States, (9)University of California Merced, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Merced, CA, United States, (10)University of California Merced, Merced, CA, United States
Abstract:
Legacy fire exclusion, climate change, and human activities have led to vulnerable forests across the Western U.S. Restoration activities like mechanical thinning, prescribed burning, and meadow restoration can lead to improved forest health, decreasing the risk of severe high-intensity wildfires while leading to other outcomes like watershed protection. Traditionally, land managers alone have been responsible for funding these critical restoration projects, but this model is impractical as public land management agencies are increasingly resource-constrained. Overcoming this financing challenge requires local and regional partnerships between stakeholders who value resilient, healthy forests.
In this research, we propose a framework for understanding the multiple benefits of forest restoration that can be used to engage non-traditional payors, going beyond traditional ecosystem services valuation studies. We identify and classify restoration outcomes as: (1) benefits of the work itself, like job creation and timber products production or (2) secondary outcomes linked to reduced wildfire risk, like decreased risk of smoke-related public health impacts and protected water quality. We examine the benefit-enabling conditions and identify potential beneficiaries including local governments, water and electric utilities, transportation networks, recreation groups, and biomass generation facilities.
Motivating multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder support for projects requires defining metrics of success that decision makers accept and trust, and we document emerging themes in data collection tools and methodologies. We also collate quantified environmental, social, and economic values that can motivate multi-stakeholder support for projects. Together, the outcomes of this research can inform future forest management and engage a broader set of beneficiaries, with the goal of collaboratively accelerating the pace and scale of forest management in the Western U.S.
