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Better techniques for modeling terrestrial carbon fluxes are being developed. These models can determine the maximal live and detrital biomass accumulation and changing rates of accumulation with time and vegetation development. Remotely detected and spatial biogeoclimatic data are being used.

Fluoride pollution is a problem in all industrialized countries. The topic of fluorides in medicine and agriculture, and fluoridation of public water supplies is one that has attracted much controversy. This book aims to review the research findings, and provide a comprehensive reference on the effects of fluorides on plants and animals. It also includes information on conducting field surveys, establishing air quality criteria and standards, and the problems associated with fluoride analysis in air, water, soil and vegetation.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the largest source of interannual variability in global climate. Variability in climate has been linked to variability in fisheries, specifically salmon stocks of the Pacific Northwest. The ability to forecast El Niño events already exists and is likely to improve in coming years. An accurate prediction may have value because it allows for better management decisions. In this article, we develop a bioeconomic model of the coho salmon fishery and derive the value of information from improved El Niño forecasting ability. We find that a perfect El Niño forecast results in an annual welfare gain of approximately $1 million, while imperfect forecasts lead to smaller gains. Results also suggest that optimal management in the face of uncertainty involves a \"conservative\" management strategy, resulting in lower harvest, higher wild fish escapement, and lower hatchery releases than management in the absence of such uncertainty.

Using data collected by the authors on the largest and most durable of worker-owned firms in U.S. manufacturing, this paper is addressed to two questions. First, are the responses of cooperatives to changes in their economic environment different from those of conventional firms? It appears that cooperatives are more inclined to adjust pay than employment. Second, how profitable has membership in the cooperatives been? Using information on share prices, we find membership to have been extremely profitable, and in this sense, the prices of co-ops' shares have been underpriced. The riskiness of cooperative membership is discussed.

Designing a reserve system for a threatened territorial species such as the Northern Spotted Owl requires the balancing of biological necessity against economic reality. The Spotted Owl conservation plan and the Pacific Northwest timber industry are in conflict because both demand large areas of mature and old-growth coniferous forest. The primary focus of this paper is the efficient design of a reserve system for territorial species with obligate juvenile dispersal. We examine the relationship between the degree of aggregation of suitable owl habitat, the level of occupancy of that habitat by pairs of Spotted Owls, and the likelihood of owl persistence given different amounts and spatial arrangements of suitable habitat across the landscape. We develop a population model for Spotted Owls that includes an abstracted forest landscape where suitable owl habitat is arrayed in clusters embedded in a matrix not suitable for owl habitation. We conclude from our study of this model that, for any given fraction of the landscape set aside in reserves, the level of occupancy (efficiency of use) of that area will increase as the aggregation of suitable habitat increases. After the reserves reach a size that includes territories for 20 to 25 owl pairs, however, there are diminishing returns from further increases. Preserving connectivity and increasing the geographical extent of the reserve begin to outweigh increased size in importance in insuring the long-term viability of the species.

Emerging ecosystem science builds on adaptive management as an approach to dealing with salmon problems in the Pacific Northwest. Adaptive management brings scientific and democratic processes together. However, managers, the public, resource users, and scientists differ in their views on the causes of salmon decline. Managers emphasize habitat loss and over-harvest as the primary causes; commercial fishers point to habitat loss, management practices, and predators; and the public gives greatest weight to water pollution and ocean drift nets. Scientific studies of salmon often produce results that seem contradictory or unclear to the public. For adaptive management to be effective, scientists' and the public need to better understand one another's perspectives.

Harvesting restrictions to protect the habitat of the northern spotted owl on federal forests in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) substantially reduced timber available for processing by the forest products industry. We consider the extent to which these restrictions may have altered the degree of integration of the PNW and U.S. South in a national market for lumber. Descriptive statistics and econometric analysis of monthly price data suggest that a structural break occurred in the relationship between the two regions' product prices around the time of the harvest restrictions leading to a more integrated market after the restrictions were imposed.

/ Public participation in environmental management decisions has frequently led to conflict. This paper examines the role of environmental values in fueling these conflicts, based on a data base and sample content analysis of written public comments solicited in 1994 regarding the highly contentious Clinton Forest Plan (also known as Option 9) proposed for management of federal forests in the US Pacific Northwest. The analysis considered whether those respondents favoring more versus less environmental protection than was offered in Option 9 held entirely different values, identifying which antagonistic values appeared to be most fundamental and where (if at all) values consensus occurred. It also compared values emanating from respondents within and outside the affected region, although few major differences were detected in this regard. Results suggest that strong values differences did exist among those preferring greater versus less environmental protection, in particular as concerned the extent, form, and spatial and temporal scope of justification of their positions, their ideas of forests, and the appropriate role of people in forest management. Disagreement concerned far more than purely environmental values: a major point of difference involved human benefits and harms of the proposed forest plan. Indeed, both sides' positions were overridingly anthropocentric and consequentialist-a values orientation that almost inevitably spells conflict in light of the commonly differentiated social impacts of environmental management decisions. Although public involvement in environmental management thus cannot be expected to lead to a clear and consensual social directive, the Pacific Northwest case suggests that viable environmental management solutions that take this range of values into account can still be crafted.KEY WORDS: Environmental values; Public participation; Clinton Forest Plan; Pacific Northwest

Using a political ecology framework, this research analyzes the recent entry of recent Latino and Southeast Asian immigrants into the harvesting of non-timber forest products in the Pacific Northwest. Using both permit data and interviewing, it suggests that a world market for these products, government policy, and environmental conditions have the potential for driving harvests to unsustainable levels and exacerbating incipient conflicts.

A model of recreation demand is developed to determine the role of water levels in determining participation at and frequency of trips taken to various federal reservoirs and rivers in the Columbia River Basin. Contingent behavior data are required to break the near-perfect multicollinearities among water levels at some waters. We combine demand data for each survey respondent at different levels of time aggregation (summer months, rest of year, and annual), and our empirical models accommodate the natural heteroskedasticity that results. Our empirical results show it to be quite important to control carefully for survey nonresponse bias.