Modeling Regional Economic Contributions of Forest Restoration: A Case Study of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative

Forest restoration positively affects rural economies by facilitating employment and income generation with logging, wood utilization, and other restoration activities. To investigate economic effects and modeling of forest restoration, a regional contribution analysis of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) in Arizona was conducted. With over 12,000 acres mechanically thinned in 2017, 4FRI treatments led to the processing of 400,000 green tons of sawlogs and biomass. Restoration activities spurred more than 900 full-time equivalent jobs in the region, $50 million in regional labor income, and affected over 140 different industry sectors in the region. When compared to the US Forest Service Treatments for Restoration Economic Analysis Tool model estimates for 4FRI economic contributions, we found that using primary data from 4FRI contractors provided more conservative results. Primary considerations for modeling forest restoration contributions include contractor surveys, appropriate investigation of the regional context, methodological transparency in bridging restoration expenditures to input-output models, and consideration of how to enhance restoration contributions. Study Implications: A leading wildfire management strategy is restoring forests by thinning trees and conducting prescribed burns, especially in wildland-urban interfaces, to allow fire to play its more natural role and to lessen wildfire severity. Although forest restoration provides substantial economic impacts to adjacent communities and stimulates logging and sawmilling industry sectors, the economics of forest restoration are quite different from the economics of traditional timber production and thus require novel and greater understanding among forest managers. Regional economic contribution analysis of forest-restoration projects provides forest managers and stakeholders with key economic information about woody byproduct utilization and small diameter wood markets, and illuminates how comprehensive restoration spurs widespread economic activity across more industrial sectors as compared to traditional timber production. Incorporating high-resolution primary data for restoration contribution analysis and providing for methodological transparency can facilitate modeling refinements and can also offer critical insight into strategies for enhancing regional contributions and increasing sources of restoration funding.