Abstract
Sudden oak death (caused by
Phytophthora ramorum) is currently having a dramatic impact on the flow of ecosystem services provided by trees and forests in California. Timber species in California are not thought to be at risk of mortality from this pathogen and, consequently, economic impacts accrue to non-market values of trees such as aesthetics, shading, and the knowledge that healthy forest ecosystems exist. Because non-market valuation studies are expensive to design and implement, we propose that spatial benefit transfer methods can be used as a pragmatic means for obtaining second-best estimates of the economic damages associated with
P. ramorum. Economic damages to residential property values and public forest land are identified as a major concern.
Parent Publication
Keywords
Economic impacts,
non-market values,
value transfer,
hedonic property value,
contingent valuation,
existence value,
GIS
Citation
Holmes, Tom; Smith, Bill. 2008. Linking sudden oak death with spatial economic value transfer. In: Frankel, Susan J.; Kliejunas, John T.; Palmieri, Katharine M., tech. coords. 2008. Proceedings of the sudden oak death third science symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-214. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. pp. 289-298
