Nonindustrial private forest landowner willingness to pay for prescribed burning to lower wildfire hazards

Anusha Shrestha, Robert K. Grala, Stephen C. Grado, Scott D. Roberts, Jason S. Gordon and Ram K. Adhikari

Forest Policy and Economics, 2021, vol. 127, issue C

Abstract: Despite the crucial role nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners play in reducing hazardous fuels across large landscapes, there is lack of information concerning their support and valuation of fuel reduction treatments. This study determined NIPF landowners willingness to pay (WTP) for implementing prescribed burning on their forestland to lower wildfire hazards using a contingent valuation method (CVM). Of 2,000 questionnaires sent, a total of 531 landowners responded to the CV question. Of which, 26% of landowners were willing to pay the given payment amount to reduce wildfire hazard on their land using prescribed burning. The mean WTP was $41.39 per acre with a 95% confidence interval of $14.70 to $66.86 per acre. Landowner tolerance for smoke from prescribed burning, consideration of liability, concern about property damages due to wildfires, and education level were positively related with WTP. Since WTP for implementing prescribed burning was higher than its cost, available budgets can be more efficiently utilized by prioritizing more resources towards technical and educational programs on prescribed burn planning, implementing, and monitoring.

Keywords: Fuel reduction treatment; Liability; Nonmarket valuation; Random utility model; Smoke tolerance; Wildfire concerns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934121000575
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:127:y:2021:i:c:s1389934121000575

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2021.102451

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().