Assessing the amenity value of forests, with applications to Wisconsin and Ireland

The objective of this research is the valuation of the amenity function of forests. In Wisconsin Northern hardwoods forests, the goals are (i) to develop a method to compute the amenity value (non-timber value) of uneven-aged forests; (ii) to determine how individual stand characteristics, and those of its owner, influence non-timber value; (iii) to apply the methods to the maple-birch forest type. In Irish forest parks, the goals are (i) to estimate willingness to pay for recreation with stated and revealed-preference methods; (ii) to investigate the effects of forest attributes on these estimates, with particular regards to the effects of nature reserves and the practice of benefit transfer; and (iii) to compare estimates of recreation values obtained by different methods and correlate them with aesthetics indices.; The proposed measure of non-timber value (NTV) for Wisconsin uneven-aged forests is the opportunity cost of timber revenue foregone. This is revealed by the actual harvest decisions of the owner, in contrast with the potential profit-maximizing decision. This concept is applied to Wisconsin plots of the USDA Forest Inventory. The actual revenues are computed for each plot, and subtracted from the profit-maximizing revenues predicted with the model of Lin and Buongiorno (1996), giving data on the magnitude and distribution of non-timber value throughout the state. Hedonic pricing is used to estimate the amenity value of different forest characteristics.; In the Irish application, data from a large scale forest recreation survey are used to estimate models of stated willingness to pay for forest recreation from discrete choice contingent valuation. An estimated model is used to predict benefits from creation of nature reserves in forests currently without one. The reliability of benefit transfer from CV models is investigated. Benefit estimates from CV analyses are compared with analog estimates based on the travel cost method. In both sets of estimates the effect of forest attributes is investigated. Finally, welfare estimates are compared across methods and with alternative quality indices of aesthetic value. Benefit estimates are found to be congruent with economic theory and positively correlated. CV is found to produce benefit estimates often transferable between forests.