Thank you to all who attended our Earth Day webinar to launch our GiveBIG campaign for 2024. We are excited to share that we will be raising funds to support the Tacoma Tree Foundation (TTF) with an economic analysis. All funds raised during this year’s GiveBIG will be used to cover the staff time for Earth Economics to produce a benefit-cost analysis of TTF’s tree planting in and around Tacoma. If you missed it, you can view a recording of the webinar here.
On January 31, Angela Fletcher (Senior Researcher and Data and Tools Manager) presented our work valuing the co-benefits of rangeland management in the southwestern US at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Range Management in Sparks, NV. She summarized the results of the work, which reveal a broad sense of the economic importance of rangeland conservation investment in providing non-market benefits to communities.
In 2024, we will focus our pro bono efforts on expanding our schoolyard greening efforts. We are currently working with the Trust for Public Lands to assess the benefits that green schoolyards in Tacoma, WA provide to students, teachers, and the broader community. Please help us to increase the number of schools we can include in these assessments.
On August 1st, 2023, the White House Office of Management and Budget* (OMB) released draft guidance on Assessing Changes in Environmental and Ecosystem Services in Benefit-Cost Analysis for public comment. This is part of a broader strategy to develop natural capital accounting at the federal level. Here is our response.
Earth Economics with the Water Wise Gulf South Collective recently updated The Benefits of Community-Driven Green Infrastructure report, first published in 2021. This includes new community-gathered data from three new Water Wise neighborhoods. The expanded valuation covers aesthetics, avoided emissions, stormwater management, carbon sequestration, flood regulation, habitat, reduced heat, climate stability, and noise reduction benefits.
On June 1st, Ken Cousins (Research Principal at Earth Economics) presented our most recent work on outdoor recreation at the 2023 Annual Conference of the Inland Empire section of the American Planning Association, held in Priest Lake, Idaho. Ken summarized the results of the 2022 study, and described the innovative methods used to develop detailed estimates of visitation to state- managed lands in Washington state from 2019-2021.
Earth Economics’ Executive Director Maya Kocian has been invited by the World Bank to speak at the UN workshop "Making the Economic and Financial Case for Restoration." She will share our experience creating and maintaining the EVToolkit, the world’s largest database of ecosystem service valuation estimates.
In September, Earth Economics was thrilled to launch the inaugural Ingrid Rasch Legacy Fund application. We received a number of compelling applications; among them, PeaceTrees Vietnam’s request for a working map resource to support their demining efforts in central Vietnam. With your support, we aim to raise sufficient funds by December 31st to support this vital technical assistance project.