This federal Project Grant award of $799,590 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program will support the development of an improved forest natural capital accounting price (FNCAP) model. The project aims to address limitations in current methodologies by incorporating more realistic ecological assumptions, a public land management model, and estimates of the nonmarket value of forest ecosystem services.
The grantee, Oregon State University, will first develop an enhanced FNCAP model for private forest lands that includes fire risk, then expand it to public lands. This novel public land FNCAP model will enable measuring the social value of forest natural capital. The research will apply the FNCAP model to forest data from West Coast states and include a rigorous uncertainty quantification analysis.
Additionally, the grant includes a $74,112 sub-award to Harvey Mudd College to research sustainably incorporating hemp-based bioeconomy into rural and tribal lands in the Western U.S.
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