A Review Of Scientific Information On Issues Related To The Use And Management Of Water Resources In The Pacific Northwest

Fresh water is a valuable and essential commodity in the Pacific Northwest States, specifically Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and one provided abundantly by forested watersheds in the region. The maintenance and growth of industrial, municipal, agricultural, and recreational activities in the region are dependent on adequate and sustainable supplies of fresh water from surface and ground-water sources. Future development, especially in the semiarid intermountain area, depends on the conservation and expansion of the region's water resource. This synthesis reviews the state of our knowledge and condition of water resources in the Pacific Northwest.

Fresh water is a valuable & essential commodity in the Pacific Northwest States, specifically Oregon, Washington, & Idaho, & one provided abundantly by forested watersheds in the region. The maintenance & growth of industrial, municipal, agricultural, & recreational activities in the region are dependent on adequate & sustainable supplies of fresh water from surface & groundwater sources. Future development, especially in the semiarid intermountain area, depends on the conservation & expansion of the region's water resource. This synthesis, developed by the U.S. Forest Service, reviews the state of our knowledge & condition of water resources in the Pacific Northwest. Illustrations.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Knowledge about the value of water to different users and methods with which to evaluate biophysical, economic, ecological, and social tradeoffs associated with allocating limited water resources among competing uses is vital to devising appropriate and effective water resource policies. Intended primarily for non-economists, this report reviews existing water resource economics literature (as of 2002) concerning the economic value of water in different uses in the Pacific Northwest, the evaluation of tradeoffs among uses, and the use of economic incentives for water conservation and protection or enhancement of water quality. Includes an annotated bibliography of water resource economics research.

Balancing society's multiple and sometimes competing objectives regarding forests calls for information describing the direct and indirect benefits resulting from forest policy and management, whether to address wildfire, loss of open space, unmanaged recreation, ecosystem restoration, or other objectives. The USDA Forest Service recently has proposed the concept of ecosystem services as a framework for (1) describing the many benefits provided by public and private forests, (2), evaluating the effects of policy and management decisions involving public and private forest lands, and (3) advocating the use of economic and market-based incentives to protect private forest lands from development. The concept extends traditional economic theory regarding multiple forest benefits and the use of economic incentives to enhance their provision, by emphasizing ecosystems as an organizing structure for benefits. Although the emphasis on ecosystems is new, challenges in evaluating ecosystem services are similar to those long faced by economists tasked with evaluating forest benefits: (1) defining a typology of ecosystem services, (2) describing and measuring ecosystem services units or outputs, and (3) describing and measuring ecosystem services per unit of values or social weights. Progress within the Forest Service in applying the ecosystem services concept to forest policy and management will depend on knowing what information will suffice, working across disciplines, deciding on appropriate analytical frameworks, defining the appropriate role of economic and market-based incentives, and adequately funding economics research.