Forest Management Policy, Amenity Migration, and Community Well-Being in the American West: Reflections from the Northwest Forest Plan

Abstract

This paper examines the relation between public land management policy, amenity migration, and socioeconomic well-being using the case of the Northwest Forest Plan—a forest management policy that caused 11.6 million acres of federal land in the US Pacific Northwest to be reallocated from commodity production to biodiversity services. Our analysis focuses on three propositions implicit in much of the amenity migration literature in the USA: land management policies that reduce commodity production and/or increase environmental protection (1) improve the natural amenity values of public lands; (2) increase amenity migration to communities near public lands; and (3) stimulate economic development and increase socioeconomic well-being in these communities. Our findings indicate that all three propositions are problematic and demonstrate the importance of community-scale analysis for understanding the relation between land management policies, amenity migration, and community well-being. We discuss the implications of our findings for public land management and rural community development.