Program Director Rowan Schmidt and Research Lead Johnny Mojica are presented at FEMA’s Region 10 Mitigation Summit, in Lynnwood, Washington. The presentation showcase how FEMA’s environmental benefits policies and economics can be used to take a holistic approach to hazard mitigation by utilizing nature-based solutions.
Earth Economics worked with the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County to submit for FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance funds following the Thomas Fire. The application was a success and the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County was awarded nearly $200,000 in funding for post-wildfire restoration of the San Ysidro Creek floodplain in the Ennisbrook Preserve. Restoration included replanting and clearing mud and flood debris from the oak woodland.
Ryan Anderson, Strategy Lead with the Delta Institute, joined Nori podcasts’ Ross and Christophe to discuss the principles of ecological economics and the debate around financializing ecosystem services. He describes his work with The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), sharing its successes and failures and explaining what Nori can learn from his experience with the project. Listen in for Ryan’s advice to impact investors on diversifying their portfolios with farmland and learn about the Delta Institute’s recent report on valuing the ecosystem service benefits of regenerative agriculture practices.
The Miami Dade Parks Department, in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association, is hosting the 2019 NRPA Innovation Lab on Resiliency January 16-18, 2019 in Miami, Florida. Research Analyst, Jordan Wildish, from Earth Economics will participate in “The Resilience Landscape – A National Perspective” panel discussion January 17th to discuss opportunities for parks planning and development to include ecosystem service value considerations. The audience will be park professionals from across the country.
“At the Union of Concerned Scientists, we have long advocated agricultural systems that are productive and better for the environment, the economy, farmers, farmworkers and eaters than the dominant industrial system. We refer to such a system as our Healthy Farm vision. Based on comprehensive science, we have specified that healthy farm systems must be multifunctional, biodiverse, interconnected and regenerative.”
Federal lawmakers are set to consider a “Modernized Endangered Species Act” that will ultimately serve to transfer the authority of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to local governments and private interests. Essentially, if a local jurisdiction or private company views a protection that falls under the ESA as a hindrance to development, they would be significantly empowered to sidestep science and overturn the protection at the local level. Far from a modernization, the set of changes being proposed to this longstanding piece of legislation that serves as both our best defense against extinction as well as critical protection of valuable biodiversity would set us back decades – literally. The ESA has been around for more than 40 years, and scientists estimate that if it were not for the ESA, Americans would have lost at least 227 species of plants and animals since the act was passed in 1973.[i]
Experts worldwide agree that we are in the midst of a mass extinction of plant and animal species, driven largely by human activity. Over 1,300 species are listed as endangered or threatened in the United States alone. Now more than ever, we should be working to strengthen the ESA, the world’s gold standard for protecting vulnerable species, rather than diminishing it. Lawmakers behind the “modernization” proposal claim that the ESA “is not working,”[ii]but we know it is. The ESA has successfully saved more than 99% of species listed, and statistical analysis shows that listing significantly improves a species’ likelihood of recovery.[iii]The list of species the Act has saved includes the bald eagle, the manatee, the humpback whale, the California condor, the Florida manatee, and the black-footed ferret, to name just a few. As a leader in science-based economics, Earth Economics highlights the value of critical habitat, biodiversity, and healthy ecosystems in all of our work. And numerous studies have demonstrated that Americans place economic value on species preservation that far exceeds the cost of the ESA program. A few are highlighted below, including one that Earth Economics is currently working on.
When bald eagles were listed as an endangered species, there were fewer than 1,000 living in the U.S. Through habitat protection and pesticide regulation, their numbers increased exponentially, and these birds were eventually delisted in the early 2000s. Bald eagles are highly valued by US households. Multiple studies have found that, on average, American households are willing to pay between $27[iv]and $58[v]per year (adjusted for inflation to 2018 dollars) to preserve bald eagles from extinction. Extended across all households, the nation is willing to spend more than $1.5 billion dollars a year to preserve bald eagles from extinction. In 1993, the year this survey was conducted, state and federal governments spent just $200 million on the entire endangered species program, protecting not just the bald eagle, but hundreds of other endangered species. [vi]
Gray wolves were extinct in the wild in the continental United States following large scale extermination efforts in the 1930s.[vii]Gray wolves were reintroduced in the wild under protection of the Endangered Species Act in the 1970s. Wolf populations were introduced in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes region.[viii]Although wolf reintroduction has been politically contentious, a significant majority of Americans support reintroduction of the species in the U.S.[ix]A survey of residents in Minnesota found that local value of gray wolf reintroduction far exceeded program costs to maintain the species. Extrapolated statewide, Minnesota residents were willing to pay more than $27 million for the management and protection of gray wolves in the area.[x]Total costs of the management program – including costs to compensate ranchers for livestock losses - were less than $800,000 annually.[xi]
Southern esident killer whales (SRKWs) were listed as an endangered species in 2005. SRKW populations have not recovered since their ESA listing, and populations continue to decline. This continued loss is ascribed to the drastic decline of their main food source - chinook salmon,[xii]which are currently at record lows in the wild.[xiii]The fragile SRKW population also suffers from disturbance by commercial and recreational vessels and chemical pollutants.[xiv]Earth Economics is currently partnering with the SeaDoc Society to estimate the economic value of this iconic species in Puget Sound. In addition, Governor Inslee of Washington State has convened a Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force in response to the dire situation of this beloved species, and citizens and organizations around Western Washington are working together to try to save them, proving yet again that Americans place a high value on the protection of native wildlife.
Recreationists, hunters, anglers, wildlife lovers young and old, and those who may never even set foot in the wild all place enormous value on the diversity of wild animals across the United States. Beyond their economic values, iconic animals like those described above are a core part of our identity and culture as Americans. They tie us to the land we love and provide an irreplaceable sense of place, history, and national pride. The ability to pass these things on to future generations of Americans is truly priceless, and the ESA is our best bet for doing just that. The ESA isn’t just good science, it’s good economics, proving time and again to be worth far more than we pay for it.
© Earth Economics 2018
Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of this publication for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
RESOURCES
The Emerald Corridor comprises one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation. With a regional economy of $347 billion and a population of 4.5 million people and counting, the Emerald Corridor is an important economy on the rise. In our recent report for the Wilderness Society - Gem of the Emerald Corridor: Nature’s Value in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest - we took a look at how nature is driving this growth, and the results are pretty eye-opening. If we view the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBSNF) as a natural asset that will provide valuable services, products, and jobs to our regional economy for at least 100 years (as we should...), its total asset value is estimated to be $1 trillion. Trillion. With a T.
The MBSNF (green) provides enormous value up and down the Emerald Corridor (white).
If you’ve been following Earth Economics for any amount of time, you already know that nature and the economy are not separate. Nature drives our economy, and the booming Emerald Corridor owes much of its incredible success to the enormous wealth of natural resources that surround it. The forest provides nearly $30 billion dollars in ecosystem services to surrounding communities every year. It filters the water we drink, purifies the air we breathe, and provides space for recreation that improves health and fuels local economies through year-round spending and jobs. For every dollar invested in its management, the forest returns $3,000 in critical ecosystem services like these every single year. You don’t need to be an economist to recognize that a 3,000% annual ROI is a REALLY good one.
Over the next week, we’ll be telling the story of the value of the MBSNF. This is not just a story about nature - it’s a story about communities. The forest connects urban and rural communities up and down the corridor through a shared interest in our precious natural resources and beloved landscapes. It brings Amazon dollars to communities like Glacier, Verlot, and Easton, as urban dwellers spend time and money in and around the forest. It provides much-needed space for recreation and exercise, as some 2 million visitors burn more than 3 billion calories in the forest each year. And in turn, community members volunteer more than 60,000 hours of their time each year working to give something back for all that we receive.
As Jon Hoekstra, Executive Director of Mountains to Sound Greenway put it in a press conference on Tuesday, “The Gem of the Emerald Corridor report provides economic data that validates what we are reminded of every time we venture to the forest and return the better for it.” At Earth Economics, we know we can’t quantify the way the forest makes us feel, or the memories we create there, or the fact that it is truly part of our local identity. These things are surely priceless. But, if we want our leaders to invest in nature, we need to give them the tools that make its benefits clear, using the language of budgets, costs, and return on investment. This report aims to do just that, because ultimately, any investment in nature is an investment in communities.
Longer days and sunny skies mean it’s not only time for outdoor adventures but also for Earth Economics’ summer internship program! This summer we are fortunate to have interns supporting a range of projects, from assessing expenditures of whale watchers to mapping barriers along salmon streams to researching investments in community health.
