FOREST MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL VALUES IN PENNSYLVANIA AND THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION

To ensure the continued provision of forest related benefits, natural resource agencies and conservation advocates need a better understanding of public preferences for forest and wildlife management to help inform natural resource policies.Programs that promote biodiversity and healthy wildlife populations on private lands are often significantly underfunded and rely on the good will of forest owners to assume much of the costs. As a result, forest health and biodiversity are often diminished, and are difficult or impossible to replace when lost. Over browsing of the forest understory by large numbers of deer also has the potential to reduce biodiversity in plant species and impede tree regeneration. Hunters are important allies in managing the state's deer population and managing for forest health, however, the emergence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) will likely affect hunter demand for deer related benefits due to changes in the number and quality of deer in the state.Welfare economics and public choice provides the basis for judging the achievements of policies in allocating resources and social benefits associated with forests and wildlife. I plan to assess public and hunter choice for forest and wildlife management by using surveys that contain advanced question design (e.g., choice experiment, attitudes scales) and data collection methodologies that capture a representative sample of the target population. A series of survey studies will be used to examine the social value of increasing biodiversity on private forest lands in Pennsylvania, and to examine potential changes in hunter demand due to the emergence of CWD. The information collected through our research can be used by decision-makers to identify strategies for encouraging forest owners and hunters to support management actions that improve forest heath and biodiversity and enhance social welfare.