Fire and the joint production of ecosystem services: A spatial-dynamic optimization approach

Travis Warziniack, Charles Sims and Jessica Haas

Forest Policy and Economics, 2019, vol. 107, issue C, -

Abstract: We develop a spatial-dynamic optimization model of landscape scale, jointly produced ecosystem services on a forest at-risk of catastrophic wildfire. We show optimal fuel management strategies vary over time in response to biomass growth dynamics, how biomass contributes to ecosystem services, the implied tradeoffs and complementarities between ecosystem service values, and the spatial dynamics of fire spread. Fuel reduction strategies increase expected ecosystem service values in the future by lowering the probability ecosystem services will be lost to catastrophic fire. However, fuel management also differentially impacts current ecosystem service values through the reduction in biomass. Ecosystem service values that are immediately enhanced by fuel reductions such as forage for grazing serve as an indirect benefit of fuel management. In contrast, ecosystem service values that are immediately harmed by fuel management such as recreational values serve as indirect costs of fuel management. Spatial spillovers, in the form of high wind, tend to lower tradeoffs between ecosystem services, and increase complementarities.

Keywords: Ecosystem services; Dynamic optimization; Wildfire; Forests; Fuels treatment; Spatial optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:107:y:2019:i:c:10

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2019.05.012

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