Browsing by Author "Bayham, Jude, advisor"

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Open Access
Burn scars and burnt s'mores: the impact of wildfire on camping demand in the years after a fire occurs
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Lee, Marissa, author; Suter, Jordan, advisor; Bayham, Jude, advisor; Flores, David, committee member; Wei, Yu, committee member
While the impacts of wildfire are widely felt and expected to increase in the coming years, less is known about the long-term impacts on recreation sites, specifically campgrounds. Wildfires inhibit the ability of individuals to recreate during wildfire season and subsequent years, due to unsafe conditions as the environment recovers. Changing wildfire suppression strategies may also affect households' ability and desire to recreate. At the same time, the number of individuals recreating is expected to increase in the coming years. As people continue to recreate and fires increase in intensity and frequency, we contribute to the discussion on wildfire's impact on recreation. We evaluate the impact of wildfire on U.S. Forest Service campgrounds in the western United States over the 15 years after a fire occurs. We construct a dataset of camping reservations from 2008-2017 and the percentage of burned area within 10 kilometer of a campground from fires occurring 1984 onward. We find that wildfires significantly decrease reservations up to six years after the fire occurs. The loss in campground utilization from decreases in reservations have negative impacts at the aggregate and local levels. A typical campground experiencing wildfire has 8% of its buffered area burned. Over the 10 years of reservation data that we evaluate, fires impact an average of 60 campgrounds annually. Summing across the affected campgrounds and fires that occur in a typical year suggests the USFS can expect to lose $50,109 in the years after fires occur at treated campgrounds, not accounting for substitution to other campgrounds. Further, we can expect a typical campground treated by fire to lose 59 campers in the six years after fire. We can expect the negative impact to increase as recreation and wildfire risk increase in the future. Depressed spending due to a reduction of campers can negatively impact communities that depend on the influx of visitors during the camping season. Reduced camping in these areas can potentially reduce employment, creating larger income gaps between urban and rural communities.
Open Access
Evaluating the efficiency, equity, and effectiveness of wildfire suppression strategy using the microeconomic toolkit
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Bryan, Calvin R., author; Bayham, Jude, advisor; Manning, Dale T., committee member; Goemans, Chris, committee member; Wei, Yu, committee member
Most economic research related to wildfires focuses on their impact on people and populations. In my dissertation, I use economic tools to evaluate the efficiency and equity of wildfire suppression strategy. In the first chapter, I investigate whether socioeconomic factors of a community (income, race, age, etc.) are correlated with allocations of suppression effort. I use spatial data on retardant drops from large airtankers (LATs) and demographic information from the Census Bureau to find that communities threatened by wildfire with fewer minority residents, but more low-income residents, are more likely to receive LAT drops. I then find that socioeconomic factors aren't correlated with the decision to use LATs in suppression after conditioning on biophysical factors like fuels and burn probability. In my second chapter, I study whether the media's attention to wildfire influences suppression strategy. I instrument for the effect of media attention using the incidence of catastrophic events that would distract the media to find that media scrutiny of a wildfire has no tangible effect on the decision to use aviation on a fire. Finally, most economic research on wildfire suppression strategy has focused on the costs; little exists on its benefits. I use causal inference methods leveraging satellite data on wildfire growth and intensity, along with the spatial data on aerial suppression effort mentioned previously, to find that large airtankers are effective at limiting the physical extent of wildfire's spread, reducing the intensity of flames as it grows, and slows its spread.
Open Access
Opportunity cost of water in the South Platte River: comparing economic value derived from stated and revealed preferences
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Stein, Samuel, author; Bayham, Jude, advisor; Kroll, Stephan, committee member; Coats, Jennifer, committee member
The assessment of model choice is important in the valuation of ecosystem services because of the implications it has on policy decision making and public perception of natural resources. Values derived from the Contingent Valuation Method and the Travel Cost Method were compared using the South Platte River as a case study. Two surveys were distributed in order to find willingness to pay for increased fishery quality. In the Contingent Valuation model, individuals were asked if they were willing to pay an increased fishing license fee in order to improve fishery quality. The median willingness to pay for increased fishery quality amounted to $77.07 per individual. In the Travel Cost model, individuals were surveyed at fisheries of varying quality along the South Platte River, using their cost of travel, fishing-trip-specific purchases, and the fisheries' quality measure to determine willingness to pay for increased fishery quality. In this model the annual willingness to pay for an increase in quality from quality 1 to quality 2 is $83, while the willingness to pay for an increase in quality from quality 2 to quality 3 is $153. Finally, the willingness to pay for an increase in quality from quality 3 to quality 4 is $481, while the willingness to pay for an increase in quality from quality 4 to quality 5 is $2639. Both models showed that, even at their lower bound, gross willingness to pay exceeded the cost to restore ecosystem services and improve fishery quality.