Blog Archives for Economics

By Greg Peters - February 22, 2010   At the tail end of 2009, two prominent political bodies, the Western Governors Association (WGA) and the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) each sent letters to the USDA extolling watershed restoration, the Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative, and "Right-Sizing" the Forest Road System.

By Bethanie Walder - October 2, 2009    Last week the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, in partnership with the MT Dept of Natural Resources, released a new report entitled: An Estimation of Montana’s Restoration Economy.   The  purpose of the project was to “estimate the economic activity resulting from public spending on restoration activities in Montana.”

By Bethanie Walder - July 1, 2009    The Institute for Environmental Negotiation at the University of Virginia conducted a national assessment of the Forest Service's off-road vehicle travel management planning process.  Several of Wildlands CPR's staff were interviewed for this report. We hope it will be useful.

By Bethanie Walder - April 30, 2009    In FY 2008, the Forest Service received $39.4 million for the new Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative.  These funds were designated to protect and restore aquatic habitat for threatened or endangered fish, and clean drinking water for communities.  The money was allocated for watershed restoration through road reclamation of unneeded roads and culvert upgrades/critical maintenance on needed Forest Service roads.

By Josh Hurd - April 9, 2009    General obligation bonds, approved through ballot initiatives, finance the majority of California’s restoration activities. Since 2000, the state has raised over $13 billion for water-related projects through the issuance of these bonds (see Table). Of this, $3.3 billion has gone to watershed restoration and protection. However, the general public appears increasingly less willing to support bond-funded restoration programs, as the margin of victory for the measures has steadily decreased, from 30-percent in 2000 to 8-percent in 2006.

By Josh Hurd - February 24, 2009    Environmental protection almost always takes a hard hit during economic recessions.  News abounds around the country of how, especially in energy policy, the gains of the past few years have been offset by cheap gas and a depressed economy.

By Josh Hurd - February 19, 2009    The Puget Sound has been at the forefront of restoration. A recent report, "Action Agenda: Financing Strategy -- Estimates of Spending Related to Puget Sound," released by the Puget Sound Partnership, shows the complicated funding situation that projects such as this face. According to the report:

By Bethanie Walder - February 13, 2009   Wildlands CPR and colleagues around the country have been working feverishly to ensure that some funding for rural green jobs, through watershed restoration would be included in the stimulus bill.

By Josh Hurd - February 4, 2009    Market mechanisms to provide for environmental quality are controversial.  The 1990 Clean Air Act, which instated a cap-and-trade system to efficiently decrease acid rain, irked many people, who said that the buying and selling of rights to pollute was morally wrong. However, twenty years later the program is widely heralded as a success. Thus the current interest in cap-and-trade systems for greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide.

By Bethanie Walder - December 16, 2008    I’ve been thinking and talking a lot lately about the economy, economic stimulus ideas, and the seeming failure of a consumer economic model.  I found it interesting, then, to see a blog post by Robert Reich today that talked about the implications of Keynesian economics, deficit spending and opportunities to protect natural resources.  While I didn’t know all the correct economic terms for what I had been thinking, Reich offers some strong