SRS Research News

Contents:

Volume 2, Number 12 -- November 5, 2003

Past Issues

Forests in a Market Economy

SRS Researcher Awarded USDA Grant

AIBS Meeting on Invasive Species March 16 – 18, 2004

Recent Grant Announcements

Forests in a Market Economy

SRS research economists and their cooperators have developed a book that demonstrates how economic principles can be used effectively to analyze forest policy issues. Forests in a Market Economy is the result of collaboration between researchers at the SRS Economics of Forest Protection and Management unit in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina State University (NCSU), and the Research Triangle Institute.Edited by Karen Abt from SRS and Erin Sills from NCSU, the 20-chapter book is designed as a handbook for practitioners, policy analysts, and graduate students.

“This book provides a valuable resource for addressing the foundations of our most pressing forest policy issues,” says David Wear, project leader for the Research Triangle Park unit. “Forest sustainability is increasingly tied to the decisions that private landowners make in response to market forces and changing values. Forest policies can be designed to promote sustainability by influencing market forces and having direct economic impacts. The book offers a range of sophisticated methods to quantify forest market processes, identify timber and nonmarket forest values, and measure the effects of forest policies.”

Researchers from the SRS Triangle Park unit—Karen Abt, David Butry, Tom Holmes, Evan Mercer, Jeff Prestemon, and David Wear—helped author 15 of the 20 chapters of Forests in a Market Economy.

To read the table of contents and introduction: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/econ/pubs/eos031.htm .

Read the full news release: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/about/newsrelease/nr_2003-10-30-forestmarket.htm

For more information: Karen Abt at (919-549-4094) or kabt@fs.fed.us

SRS Researcher Awarded USDA Grant

The USDA has awarded SRS researcher Jeff Prestemon $101,981 for research on the economic effects of preventing, controlling, or eradicating invasive pests. Prestemon, forest economist with the SRS Economics of Forest Protection and Management unit in Research Triangle Park, will examine the economic effects of invasive species regulations on producers and consumers of forestry products, including downstream manufacturing industries.

Prestemon’s proposal, developed in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin, was the only proposal from a government agency that was funded under the $1.5 million initiative announced in early October.

For more information: Jeffrey Prestemon at (919-549-4033) or jprestemon@fs.fed.us

AIBS Meeting on Invasive Species March 16 – 18, 2004

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) 2004 annual meeting will approach the topic “Invasive Species: The Search for Solutions” from the perspective of one or more cross-cutting themes, including: what makes a species invasive, research questions and tools, aquatic and terrestrial issues, public policy, economics, and prevention and remediation.

Plenary speakers include: Ann Bartuska (Nature Conservancy), Richard Mack (Washington State University), Stephen Morse (Columbia University), David Lodge (University of Notre Dame), Andrew Dobson (Princeton University) and Daniel Simberloff (University of Tennessee).

For more information: http://www.aibs.org/annual-meeting-2004/