EUGENE,
Ore. -- (June 28, 2011) - A new set of resources from the University of Oregon are
intended to help forest and watershed restoration leaders predict and monitor
the local economic impacts of ecological restoration in the state.
The Ecosystem
Workforce Program
at the UO developed the "Economic Impacts of Restoration
Calculator for Oregon Counties"
to help restoration practitioners better forecast the economic impacts of field-based
restoration spending. Using the calculator, project managers can translate
proposed project spending into predicted county-level employment, earnings and overall
economic impact of proposed restoration activities. A second tool will measure
the ongoing economic impact of restoration.
"In
Oregon, substantial investments have been made in forest and watershed
restorations projects over the past 20 years, but the impact of that work has
been measured for its ecological value, not as economic impacts," said
Cassandra Moseley, director, UO Institute for a Sustainable Environment and the
Ecosystem Workforce Program, who led the development of the tools.
Recent
research conducted by the Ecosystem Workforce Program at the UO found that
every $1 million invested in restoration by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement
Board (OWEB) supports 16.3 full-time equivalent jobs, along with $589,000 in
wages and $2.3 million in overall economic activity (http://ewp.uoregon.edu/sites/ewp.uoregon.edu/files/downloads/WP24.pdf).
"By combining traditional economic analysis
tools with data collected from actual restoration projects, the calculator
tells a more complete story about the economic impacts of restoration than what
was previously possible," said Moseley.
Because
the calculator is intended to be used as an estimate for future projects and
does not monitor economic impacts of project spending, the Ecosystem Workforce
Program has developed a second tool to enable restoration practitioners to
monitor the actual economic impacts of restoration.
The
"Quick Guide to Monitoring the Economic Impacts of Restoration and Stewardship"
is designed to provide interested parties with a framework for setting economic
goals, selecting monitoring measures, collecting data, and reporting and using
monitoring results. This guide describes
how to obtain and utilize detailed information about job numbers, job quality,
wages, contracting and subcontracting opportunities, and local capture of
contracts and jobs.
According
to Jon Souder, executive director of the Coos Watershed Association, a local
non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the Coos River Watershed in western
Oregon, "We have desired for quite some time to have a tool to determine the
economic benefits from our work. The quick guide and the calculator will enable
us to demonstrate how we're achieving our mission to support environmental
integrity and economic stability through our watershed restoration efforts."
Developed
with funding from the Meyer Fund for a Sustainable Environment, the calculator
tool and monitoring guide are geared toward watershed councils, soil and water
conservation districts, forest and watershed restoration collaboratives, tribal
natural research managers and other land managers and agencies.
The calculator and monitoring guide are
available for download at: http://ewp.uoregon.edu/economy
.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the
108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation
of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification
of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific
Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
MEDIA
CONTACT: Julie
Brown, UO media relations, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
SOURCE: Cassandra Moseley, director, UO
Institute for a Sustainable Environment, 541-346-4545, cmoseley@uoregon.edu
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