This question motivates my research program.

I am a professor of applied economics at Oregon State University who specializes in environmental and natural resource economics.  My research addresses economic issues related to land use, ecosystem service provision, and conservation science.  I use microeconomic theory and micro-econometric tools to study how landowners make decisions, how land-use decisions affect ecosystem services, how the public values ecosystem services, and how conservation policy can be designed to provide ecosystem services.  My empirical applications have focused on topics such as land-use change, land conservation, lakeshore development, biodiversity management, forest management under climate change, protected areas and open-space, coastal ecosystem service provision, salmon conservation, organic agriculture, land development impacts on water withdrawals, and invasive species management in lakes.

I joined the Applied Economics faculty at Oregon State in 2013 after spending four years at University of Wisconsin-Madison and four years at University of Puget Sound.  I obtained my PhD from Oregon State in 2005 in Agricultural and Resource Economics. I partner with colleagues within my own discipline of environmental economics, and with natural science colleagues who are interested in the biophysical effects of land use on ecosystem services.

Other sites that house my research are my Google Scholar Page, my ResearchGate Page, and my ORCID page. Full CV is here.