It should surprise exactly no one to find that wildfire and drought have damaged private timberlands in the three West Coast states. But now two economists at Oregon State University have put a number on the losses: $11.2 Billion over the last two decades.
In a recent paper, Yuhan Wang and David Lewis argue that more than half of that damage is attributable to climate change. And not just because of direct damage, either: some of the losses are chalked up to lowered land and timber values caused by concern about nearby fires.
The authors visit to explain what they put into their work, and how the information could be useful to private timber owners and managers.