Climate change is disrupting ecosystem services around the world. Recognizing the challenges that climate change poses to watersheds, the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) aims to enhance climate change research and improve water management decision-making to ensure that water utilities can respond effectively. To help utilities understand how climate change affects critical ecosystem services and how to adapt to predicted climate impacts on those ecosystems, Earth Economics worked with WUCA members to survey utility adaptation needs.
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.
Nationwide and across the globe, climate impacts pose increasing problems to communities and ecosystems. As community leaders and local governments work to address these impacts, nature-based solutions can provide cost-effective options that benefit both communities and wildlife. Earth Economics partnered with the National Audubon Society on three case studies involving restoration and protection of wetlands, barrier islands, and other ecosystems for hazard mitigation purposes. These three cases represent diverse communities and geographies across the nation - in Connecticut, North Carolina, and California.
Washington’s state parks provide ample benefits to local communities throughout Washington. This report estimates how park visitor spending supports jobs, wages, and taxes throughout Washington, and places a dollar value on the ecosystem services provided by state park lands. The findings of this report are based on 2019 data and provide a strong baseline to measure against as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
When local governments invest in their parks, they’re investing in more than just community spaces in which residents can exercise, picnic, and unwind. Those investments also support their economy. Our team worked with PROS Consulting, Inc. to provide an economic contribution analysis of the City of Memphis’s investments into their Parks and Neighborhoods Division.
In flood-prone areas of New Orleans, community-based organizations have been increasing stormwater retention capacity through a community-based approach focused on tree planting and green infrastructure installations. Earth Economics (EE) with the Greater Tremé Consortium, Healthy Community Services, and Upper 9th Ward analyzed the value of existing and planned green infrastructure installations to provide data-driven evidence for engagement with the City of New Orleans and prospective funders to increase installations of community-driven solutions. This technical report and fact sheet present the findings.
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 Greater Santa Fe Fireshed is an area of forested mountains and foothills directly to the east of the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, spanning 173 square miles and including a portion of the Santa Fe National Forest, as well as tribal land, residential areas, and County recreation areas. The U.S. Forest Service engaged Earth Economics to conduct an analysis of the social, environmental, and economic benefits that the fireshed provides for the surrounding community, and to explore the impact of the proposed fuel reduction treatment on these benefits. This conservative analysis found that the proposed fuel treatments are estimated to generate between $1.44–$1.67 in benefits for every dollar invested in treatment.
Across Oregon, there are thousands of recreation sites and opportunities to hike, camp, bike, picnic, hunt, kite surf, and more; and each year, billions of dollars are spent by folks enjoying Oregon’s outdoors. Recognizing that outdoor recreation is a major contributor to the state’s economy, Travel Oregon, the Oregon Office of Outdoor Recreation (OREC), and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) united to commission a study on the impacts of the outdoor recreation economy. This study highlights the meaningful contributions of economic impacts generated by Oregonians and visitors that recreate in our vast and abundant outdoors.
The built environment can significantly impact ecosystem services, especially where infrastructure is designed without full consideration of stream ecology and aquatic migratory species. By expanding our understanding of the value of improved stream crossings to include not only ecological costs, but also conventional risks (e.g., localized flooding, transportation disruptions), we can build a modernized transportation infrastructure that supports both human needs and larger ecological and hydrological processes.
