Building on 2020’s “Economic Analysis of Outdoor Recreation in Washington State”, a coalition of state agencies tasked Earth Economics with a focused assessment of the total visitation, consumer spending, and economic output associated with outdoor recreation on state-managed lands. This analysis improves significantly on earlier efforts by leveraging voluntarily provided mobile device locational data throughout 2019 and 2020 to generate data-driven estimates of the total economic contribution of visitors to state-managed recreation lands, detailed at more granular geographic and temporal scales.
The City of Kent and South King County are home to immigrant and refugee families from around the world. In response to calls for community space, World Relief Western Washington began developing the Paradise Parking Plots Community Garden in 2016, transforming a frequently flooded parking lot at Hillside Church into a vibrant multi-cultural garden oasis and resilience hub. Earth Economics assessed the ecoystem services benefits and the benefit-cost ratio of the community gardens, which provide gardeners with $127,000 in market value in foods produced each year.
Earth Economics partnered with the Washington Department of Ecology and Puget Sound Partnership to produce a study that reveals the breadth and magnitude of the ecosystem services provided by the Salish Sea Basin’s lands and waters. The results—an estimated US $124 billion in ecosystem services every year— show significant benefits to restoring natural capital in the Salish Sea. A second report focuses on value changes in landcover in Island County, Whidbey Basin, and contributing watersheds from 1992 to 2016. The ecosystems within this study area produced over $1.4 billion in non-market benefits each year.
The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group (HCSEG) spearheads conservation and habitat restoration efforts on the Big Quilcene River, using easements and land acquisition to permanently protect areas of the floodplain and restore the benefits that a more natural floodplain provides. The group commissioned Earth Economics to conduct an analysis of the economic benefits, both market and non-market, of two planned large-scale restoration projects that would reconnect the Big Quilcene River to its historic floodplain.
Two major industries are at the heart of the Lake Chelan Valley economy– agriculture and tourism. Tourism attracts over 2 million visitors annually, with visitors spending an estimated $417 million per year that supports about 5,000 jobs. The Valley’s five golf courses attract tourists from around the world, contributing to the larger tourism economy. The City of Chelan owns and operates the Lake Chelan Golf Course (LCGC), and commissioned Earth Economics to perform a study on the economic impact of this course to better understand its contribution to the regional economy.
Salmon are at the heart of the culture and well-being of hundreds of Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Yet, declining Pacific salmon populations jeopardize the well-being of these Indigenous communities. The Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC) commissioned this study on the food, social, and ceremonial importance of Pacific salmon to Tribes and First Nations throughout the Pacific Salmon Treaty region.
Earth Economics worked with Washington DNR and Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics to include non-market ecosystem services benefits into DNR’s Trust Land Performance Assessment (TLPA), a comprehensive assessment of the value of trust lands. The results of our report demonstrate that maintaining state trust lands as working forests and agricultural lands creates value far beyond the revenue they generate.
The shoreline and marine ecosystems of San Juan County provide benefits that would be impractical or even impossible to replace, including water quality, air quality, flood risk reduction, and habitat for threatened and endangered species. Once lost, these services that the county receives for free must be replaced with costly built solutions, which are often less resilient and shorter-lived. Understanding and accounting for ecosystem services reveals the true economic benefits of healthy ecosystems and the true economic damages that pollution events such as oil spills generate for communities like the San Juan County.
In 2017, Earth Economics consulted with the Puyallup Watershed Initiative to prepare an exploratory report to better understand the potential tradeoffs that can occur when developing properties in incorporated and unincorporated Pierce County.
The Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) is a flagship species, a cultural icon, and an economic driver for Washington State. To better understand the economic incentives to invest in SRKW recovery, Earth Economics conducted an economic contribution analysis to estimate the value of whale watching in San Juan County.
