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This California report is part of a series that analyzes how and why the West is outperforming the nation, and the competitive advantage offered by its protected lands.
This fact sheet summarizes Arizona’s recent economic growth and the role of protected public lands in supporting faster job creation and higher per-capita income.
The great majority of Oregon’s net new jobs are from services industries, many of them high-paying. This report looks at the state’s economy and the role of protected public lands.
Wyoming is an economic leader and protected public lands help the state grow and diversify its economy.
Utah has been a national leader in economic growth during the past decade. This report looks at the state’s economy and the role of protected public lands.
This study provides a number of lessons as the West slowly recovers from the recent recession about why some local economies performed better than others.
This report summarizes Colorado’s economy and the role of federal protected lands, including how the state has performed, and Colorado’s ability to attract people, investment, and businesses.
An analysis of New Mexico’s economy and how federal protected lands impact economic performance.
This paper presents ten examples of cities and counties around the country and the key lessons learned in the process of moving from planning to implementation on climate change adaptation.
More than 100 economists and academics urged President Obama to create and invest in new federal protected lands such as national parks, wilderness, and monuments.
A report on socioeconomic conditions of Missoula County as part of public process of developing a climate change adaptation plan.
These two slideshows and related information use Missoula County and Western Montana to show how many homes have been built in flood and wildfire hazard areas, which are vulnerable to larger and more frequent floods and fires.
Headwaters Economics has updated the Economic Profile System (EPS) to help decision makers access and analyze large amounts of information about their communities.
This report studies the possible effects of climate change in the Crown of the Continent on two “snow-pack” dependent sectors of the economy–downhill skiing and recreational fishing.
This report explores the question of whether and how rural, isolated communities can benefit from being gateways to large expanses of public lands.
Headwaters Economics has studied wildfires across the West, analyzing how more homes near forests and increasing temperatures will significantly increase future costs and safety risks.
Kelly Pohl, who researches climate resilience, housing and land use at Headwaters Economics said that in high-demand places like mountain towns and coastal areas disasters tend to accelerate gentrification.
“There are a lot of cities that share similarities with what happened in Los Angeles,” said Kelly Pohl with Headwaters Economics, a non-profit research group in Montana that had done research on the cost of retrofitting homes to protect against wildfires. Think Boise, Idaho. Salt Lake City.
“A lot of Montanans can do things before a fire starts,” said Kelly Pohl, an the associate director of Headwaters Economics. “We have to realize that wildfire is part of our landscape, so we have to take actions to reduce the likelihood that it will destroy property.”
Wildfires threaten nearly one-third of U.S. residents and buildings, according to a new government analysis that suggests the risk is greater than previously known. The Forest Service, working with Montana researchers, took a new approach to measuring wildfire risk and limited its historical analysis to the 15 years between 2004 and 2018.