1. Dominic Roques 805 550 7915
2. Thomas Gaman, East-West Forestry Associates, PO Box 276, Inverness,
California 94937 tgaman@forestdata.com 415 669 7100
FOREST RESTORATION IN THE SIERRA NEVADA: INTEGRATING
ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSES FOR
MANAGEMENT DIRECTION.
The authors develop a methodology for a landscape based economic analysis
that recognizes three forms of capital (financial, natural, and social).
These
factors are woven together via a spatial analysis to identify and prioritize
forest
restoration needs in the Sierra Nevada of California. The economicassessment
offers a comprehensive view of the enterprise of forest restoration.We examine
the costs, potential benefits, and realistic funding mechanisms foraddressing
impacts on forest biodiversity from urbanization, suppression of thenatural
fire
regime, construction of roads through riparian areas, and timber harvesting.
The
spatial analysis is conducted using a Geographic Information System(GIS)
constructed for this project around the watersheds of 31 primary riverbasins
of
California's Sierra Nevada, comprising over 20 million acres, using1:100,000
digital coverages. The true complexity of the restoration challenge
in the region
is abundantly clear where maps reveal the intersection of public andprivate
ownerships, encroaching human settlement, and the location of highvalue forest
assets (old growth forest, giant sequoia groves, roadless back-country).Spatially
explicit information of this kind is essential for a meaningful examination
of the
potential effects of pursuing forest restoration at any scale. Forest
restoration is
shown to promote both commodity values (biomass, higher timber values)and
ecosystem services (amenity values, clean water, biodiversity) whichstrengthen
local economies through increased diversification. This processcan
be
effectively used on a regional level in selecting, prioritizing, scaling,
and
funding appropriate restoration projects to match a local community'scapacity
to
exploit the investment of financial capital.