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…"As the weather becomes more extreme across the nation, so does the threat of fire," said Joe Dougherty, spokesman for the Utah Division of Emergency Management. "Utahns are encouraged to know their risks, take action and be an example to others."

The warning comes as a report by the nonpartisan research group Headwaters Economics shows that 84 percent of private lands near fire-prone wildland-urban interface areas remain undeveloped in the West.The group says firefighting costs greatly increase in such developed areas because of the desire to protect houses.…

Ray Rasker, director of Headwaters Economics, said the rise in wildland firefighting costs because of urban encroachment is a problem widely recognized, but it gets little discussion.

“Where the conversation gets stuck nationally on this is that people say, `Yes, it is a problem, but what do you do about it?’” he said.…

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…“We’ll never see a change in the cost of firefighting unless there is local cost accountability,” says Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwaters Economics in Bozeman, Mont., an independent, non-partisan research firm that has analyzed the costs of western wildfires for the past decade.
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…A recent report by Headwaters Economics used 2010 U.S. Census data to map development in the wildland urban interface in 11 Western states and county by county in each state.

The analysis, which includes an interactive data map, shows that 84 percent of private lands near fire-prone areas remains undeveloped in the West. If just half of that land is developed in the future, the report warns that annual firefighting costs could escalate to as much as $4.3 billion. As a comparison, the organization notes the entire budget for the U.S. Forest Service is $5.5 billion.

“The point of this report is that fires are awfully expensive and they have been getting more expensive over time,” said Ray Rasker, Headwaters’ director. “While homes are not the only factor, they are a contributing one.”…

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…Outdoor recreation and protected lands help the local economy. Recent studies by Headwaters Economics, a non-partisan, independent, nonprofit research group, have found that jobs and real personal income rose in local communities after nearby areas were permanently protected. That same potential is offered by the Berryessa Snow Mountain region.…

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…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.…

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…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.…

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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.”…

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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.…

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We sat down with Headwaters Economics Policy Director Chris Mehl to find out what this could mean for our economy. He says Yellowstone is a huge economic driver for Bozeman, Jackson and Cody, especially on an annual basis.

"Considering the timing, it’s probably the least bad news that you’re going to have.  Easier for me to say than a concessionaire in Cody, Wyoming," says Mehl.

Mehl says visitors are the main economic driver for many gateway communities, spending money at restaurants, hotels and gas stations and with fewer visitors.

"You’re no longer having those jobs supported if they’re not spending, the companies in Wyoming not hiring in April, they delay it or they don’t have as many for the whole year," says Mehl.

But there’s more.  He says uncertainty of how long the delay could last might deter folks looking to make travel arrangements.

"How many will cancel entirely?  How many won’t come now?  How many will delay? We don’t know," says Mehl.…

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…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.…

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…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.…

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…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.…

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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.…

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…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.…

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Two studies commissioned by philanthropist Roxanne Quimby’s foundation suggest that a national park in northern Maine could boost tourism, jobs and personal income in the region. Specifically, the studies find that similar communities with national parks and recreation areas outpace the national average for economic development.

The studies by Headwaters Economics make no specific projections for park visitors or economic growth but they do suggest that a Maine Woods National Park and/or a national park and recreation area could produce more than 1,000 jobs over time if it’s well-planned and if it encompasses about 150-thousand acres. Ben Alexander, the associate director of the Montana-based firm that conducted the research, said the job numbers are based on the experience of 16 other peer communities with national parks and recreation areas around the country where 1,000 jobs is the average number created. And he said that’s just one of the benefits.

“From an economic performance standpoint all of those regions that had parks or had parks and recreation areas closely associated or nearby grew more quickly, created more jobs and personal income and attracted more people than the growth rates in Penobscot and Piscataquis Counties or than the United States as a whole over the last 40 years,” said Alexander.

He said not only do the park communities fare better than average but their economies are more diversified and can support a variety of year-round activities. The findings also suggest that there would be little downside for the forest products industry. Dr. Charles Colgan, professor of public policy and management at the Muskie School of Public Service said the studies are well executed and show why the park idea is worthy of more thought.…

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The reports found that communities adjacent to national parks or national parks and recreation areas outpaced the U.S. average and Penobscot and Piscataquis counties for economic growth, including population, employment and real personal income. Regions with only a recreation area showed mixed performance.

“A national park and recreation area has the potential to stimulate tourism and attract new people, including a younger population,” said Ben Alexander, associate director for Headwaters Economics. “There’s the potential to create, directly and indirectly, more than a thousand jobs over time. A more conservative estimate suggests that attracting just 15 percent of the visitors to Acadia National Park would create about 450 jobs.”

Headwaters Economics is an independent, nonprofit research group with a mission of improving community development and land management decisions. Headwaters’ work was reviewed by prominent Maine economists and public policy experts, who helped to inform the way the research was conducted and to ensure that it is accurate.

To create the report, the researchers worked on the assumption that there would be up to 150,000 acres of land donated to the National Park Service, of which 75,000 acres would be a national park and 75,000 would be a national recreation area.…

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…Montana-based Headwaters Economics, which has done work for the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, said a national park can provide a big economic boost.

“Northern Maine clearly needs a new economic idea,” Ben Alexander, associate director of Headwaters Economics, said Thursday. “Are people ready to try something else? That’s not for me to say. But if you look at other places with (national parks), it clearly indicates there’s an opportunity here.”…

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…Headwaters Economics, an independent nonprofit research group from Montana that studies land management and community development issues, assumed matching 75,000-acre parcels for the purposes of developing the two studies and an executive summary, said Ben Alexander, the firm’s associate director.

One study analyzed the economies of Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. The other, what Headwaters called the Peer Report, compared the economies of 16 peer communities within the U.S. — communities near six national parks, six national recreation areas, and four combined national park and recreation areas ― to those areas’ economies.

The studies found that from 1970 to 2010, the peer region economies with national parks or combined areas grew faster than the economies, population, employment and real personal income of the two Maine counties.

The peer region economies also diversified faster, the studies showed. Manufacturing and construction accounted for most job losses in the peer areas, though the two Maine counties have done well diversifying their economies, Alexander said.

National-park visitor spending created on average 839 private-sector and 216 National Park Service jobs in the peer communities. If the new park attracts 15 percent of the 2.5 million annual visitors to Acadia National Park, it could create 451 new private-sector jobs, the studies showed.…

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…As a recent report from Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics shows, rural counties in the West with more than 30 percent of federal land protected as parks, wilderness, monuments and recreation areas have enjoyed a 345 percent growth in jobs over the past 40 years — more than quadruple the job growth of counties without protected lands.

But Montanans also recognize the need for a sustainable supply of timber to our remaining mills, while protecting some of our finest backcountry. And most Montanans acknowledge the importance of maintaining our wood products infrastructure that still supports over 6,000 timber industry jobs across the state.

We can have both.…

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Wyoming tends to be more conservative than the rest of (the states)," said Dave Metz, the Democratic pollster. "Oil and gas development is happening at a faster clip there than they are in the other states."

Other independent nonpartisan research bolsters this poll’s findings. Headwaters Economics found on average that "Western non-metro counties have a per capita income that is $436 higher for every 10,000 acres of protected federal lands within their boundaries."

"The West is outpacing the rest of the country in terms of jobs and income growth," said Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwaters. "We’ve got an awful lot of open land; we’ve got an enviable way of life. CEOs are telling us they use this as a way to recruit talent."…

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