Press Room (182): Media & Newsletters

In the news:

…Protected public land on which people recreate also contributes to higher per capita income levels, according to a report released in the fall of 2012 by local nonprofit economic research group Headwaters Economics. The report found that in rural western counties, each person’s income is $436 higher for every 10,000 acres of protected public land within the county boundaries.…

In the news:

…State fiscal policies haven’t caught up with the oil boom in North Dakota, said Mark Haggerty, an analyst at Bozeman, Montana-based Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit that researches land management. In the conventional model, companies drilled vertical wells, built collection facilities and enjoyed a longer production phase requiring few workers, he said. In the Bakken formation, production declines more quickly, requiring more labor to sustain it and deepening the social impact, Haggerty said. "To maintain production you have to keep drilling and drilling and drilling," he said. Nonstop drilling requires more services for more workers, intensifying the strain on Williston’s finances. Balancing the city’s budget is crucial at a time when it must raise money to finance infrastructure work to accommodate growth. S&P analysts warned if Williston’s finances continue to deteriorate, it faces further downgrades.…

In the news:

…From a recent study by Headwaters Economics (Bozeman): "...The West's wilderness areas and other public lands offer its growing high-tech and services industries a competitive advantage, which is a major reason why the western economy has outperformed the rest of the US... Entrepreneurs and talented workers are choosing to work where they can enjoy outdoor recreation and natural landscapes.... Increasingly, chambers of commerce and economic development associations in every western state are using the region's public lands as a tool to lure companies to relocate... High-wage services industries also are using the West's public lands as a tool to recruit and retain innovative, high-performing talent."…

In the news:

Allowing less development near wildlands could be a more effective way to reduce the cost of fighting wildfires, according to Bozeman economists. Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics released a report last week analyzing how the cost of fighting wildfires could skyrocket if development continues in the wildland-urban interface of the West. Using 2010 census data, economists found that 84 percent of property in the wildland-urban interface in 11 western states is still undeveloped. Limiting the analysis to Montana, that increases to more than 90 percent or more than 2,600 square miles. The economists are concerned that if that land is developed, costs and risk to firefighters will increase.…

In the news:

…Every scientific look at the future of wild fire in Idaho and the West predicts larger fires, longer fire seasons as the summers become hotter and drier. Even if every acre of Idaho’s front-country forests, those outside the roadless and wilderness areas, were managed like private or state forests, the overall climatic conditions are expected to burn more forests.

Add to that the continued development of homes and cabins into the forests and the costs of firefighting will continue to grow. Protecting private property from forest fires account for 50 percent and 95 percent of all firefighting costs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General reported.

A new study by Headwaters Economics shows that 84 percent of private lands near public forests in the West today are undeveloped. This means over the next 50 years the costs of firefighting could explode due to development even if we turned every possible public forest into a managed plantation.…

In the news:

…A recently-released report by Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics looks at how public lands create a competitive economic advantage in the West. The study found that, from 1970 to 2010, job growth in the West was double what it was in the rest of the country. Most of that employment was in service industries including high tech, insurance, finance, health care, real estate and insurance, "which created 19.3 million net new jobs, many of them high-paying." Non-metropolitan counties whose land base was more than 30 percent federally-protected land saw a 345 percent rise in employment during that same period. The report also shows that, in 2010, per capita income in Western, rural countries with 100,000 acres of protected public lands is $4,360 higher on average than those countries with no protected public lands.…

In the news:

…When asked if national parks, forests, monuments and wildlife areas are an essential part of their state’s economy, 91 percent of those polled agreed that they are, and 7 out of 10 strongly agreed. Three-quarters of those asked also agreed that those resources attract high quality employers and good jobs to their states. Incidentally, the facts strongly support these viewpoints. A recently-released report by Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics looks at how public lands create a competitive economic advantage in the West. The study found that, from 1970 to 2010, job growth in the West was double what it was in the rest of the country. Most of that employment was in service industries including high tech, insurance, finance, health care, real estate and insurance, “which created 19.3 million net new jobs, many of them high-paying.” Non-metropolitan counties whose land base was more than 30 percent federally-protected land saw a 345 percent rise in employment during that same period. The report also shows that, in 2010, per capita income in Western, rural countries with 100,000 acres of protected public lands is $4,360 higher on average than those countries with no protected public lands.…

In the news:

For years now, people who support the creation of a national park in the Katahdin region have said a park would produce economic benefits for Maine and local towns. Opponents have argued, meanwhile, that such a park would limit existing and potential future businesses. On Thursday, Roxanne Quimby’s land-holdings company released two economic studies that clarify, to an extent, the economic effect of a national park and recreation area. The overall takeaway from the studies commissioned by the company, Elliotsville Plantation Inc., is that a 75,000-acre national park and 75,000-acre recreation area would grow both low- and high-income jobs, draw more people and businesses and generate more tax money for Penobscot County.…

In the news:

…Recent studies commissioned by Elliotsville Plantation Inc., a development company founded by pro-park philanthropist Roxanne Quimby, recasts the debate as competing visions of growth. Quimby's name is a flash point in much of rural Maine, where she is the personification of urban elitism in the eyes of many residents -- someone more concerned about rocks and trees than she is about them. But Quimby didn't conduct the research, she just paid for it. And its findings should not be rejected before they are thoroughly examined. The peer-reviewed analysis, conducted by Headwaters Economics of Montana, shows that even without a national park, the two-county Katahdin region has changed dramatically over the past four decades, and there is no reason to expect that the old economy will return.…