Ecosystem service value of water supply benefits provided by forest stands in the Mattole River watershed, California: a bioeconomic and benefit transfer - spatial analysis application.

This thesis outlines an approach based on valuing ecosystem services for assessing the trade-offs in yields from forestland management. The ecosystem services valuation approach integrates ecology and economics to help explain the effects of land management on forest and watershed ecosystem services. These services, including the cycling of clean air and clean water supplies and provisions of habitat for flora and fauna, are essentially free and considered positive externalities. As such, these services are undervalued and consequently underprovided because the beneficiaries do not pay for them. This thesis presents a simple bioeconomic model for estimating ecosystem service values. By using the benefit transfer method, Geographic Information Systems applications, and developing a forest hydrology streamflow model, I estimated ecosystem service values, for water supply benefits to fisheries provided by forest stands for the case of the Mattole River Watershed in Northern California. Results indicate that the remaining old growth stands in the Mattole Watershed provide more than $1,910,800 a year in water supply benefits to the region. This information may be useful in future analysis of the total economic impacts of how forest management affects water related benefits and ecological services.