Socioeconomic evaluation of broad-scale land management strategies

Abstract

This paper examines the socioeconomic effects of alternative management strategies for Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in the interior Columbia basin. From a broad-scale perspective, there is little impact or variation between alternatives in terms of changes in total economic activity or social conditions in the region. However, adopting a finer scale and examining affects on the counties that are likely to be most impacted by federal lands management reveals that many of these counties may be better off under one alternative in the short term, but better off under another alternative in the longer term. The agencies can reduce their short-term impacts on federal resource-reliant counties with low socioeconomic resiliency, by concentrating initial restoration efforts in specific areas, but the environmental justice issues associated with such a policy should also be considered.