The research of an assistant professor at Harvey Mudd College recently received a $799,343 three-year grant funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Biden administration.
Dede Long, assistant professor of economics at Harvey Mudd College, is a co-principal investigator (PI) on the federal grant. According to Long, the grant is highly competitive and has an acceptance rate of around 12 percent.
PI David Kling, an economist at Oregon State University (OSU), is leading the project alongside landscape ecologists at OSU and an economist and fire ecologist from the U.S. Forest Service. The project aims to develop a model for assigning an economic value to forests by analyzing market and non-market benefits.
Doing this will help convey the importance of forests to economists and policymakers, Long explained.
“Understanding the real value brought by the environmental goods and services like biodiversity could help us to inform policy decision-making,” Long said.
Long’s research uses stated preference surveys — a research method that asks people to make decisions in hypothetical situations — to assess how people value ecosystems. Surveys will be randomly distributed to people in Oregon, Washington and California to gather diverse perspectives.
“We’re asking people, ‘How much are you willing to pay for these kinds of policies in terms of taxes or other kinds of costs?’” Long said. “This is important because biodiversity is not something that we actually buy from a market.”
The grant is part of the Biden administration’s initiative to better integrate the management of natural resources into economic planning. Following former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term, Long and her team are actively discussing the future of their project under the incoming administration.
During his previous term, Trump reversed several environmental policies, including those affecting forest ecosystems. This included removing protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest and expediting approvals for oil and gas drilling in national forests.
“It will probably be harder for people like me to get future grants under the Trump administration because the administration is going to change their direction,” Long said. “Climate change and environment will not really be the priority anymore.”
Still, Long remains hopeful for a more climate-focused future and is already noticing that students are increasingly aware of environmental issues and climate change.
Students at the Claremont Colleges will be able to participate in research with Long and contribute to developing the model for placing value on forests. In the first-year budget, there is room for two students to participate and to learn about how economists use different tools to understand what value natural resources provide to their community.
“I haven’t heard about a lot of research opportunities within environmental analysis and economics, so actual research opportunities that will have an impact rather than just a sterile lab collecting data would be really nice for students,” economics major Raina Alhamoodah SC ’28 said.
Interest in this research also extends to students in environmental science. Caroline Cappetto SC ’28, a prospective environmental science major, said that the research opportunity will give students a chance to pursue something with tangible effects.
“There should be a focus on opportunities for students that will make an impact and actually help to conserve the environment,” Cappetto said.
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