J. Richard Conner

Incentive structure of and private landowner participation in an endangered species conservation program.

In the United States, voluntary incentive programs that aid conservation of plant and wildlife species on private lands provide a structural solution to the problem of protecting endangered species by reducing costs and enhancing benefits to landowners. We explored the potential for incentives to encourage landowners to manage land cover for the benefit of endangered songbirds in central Texas (U.S.A.) by asking landowners to indicate their preferences for financial incentives, technical assistance, and regulatory assurances. We identified owners of potential songbird habitat and collected data in face-to-face interviews and self-administered questionnaires. We used a latent-class stated-choice model to identify 3 classes of landowners whose choices varied on the basis of their attitudes and perceived social norms: (1) strong positive attitude, perceived social pressure to participate, and willing to participate with relatively few incentives, (2) weak positive attitude, perceived no social pressure to participate, and required strongest incentives, and (3) negative attitude, perceived social pressure not to enroll, and unwilling to participate regardless of incentive structure. Given this heterogeneity in preferences, conservation incentives may increase management of land cover to benefit endangered species on private lands to some degree; however, exclusive reliance on incentives may be insufficient. Promoting conservation on private lands may be enhanced by integrating incentives into an approach that incorporates other strategies for conservation, including social networks and collaborative processes that reinforce social norms.

Use of Seasonal Climate Forecasts in Rangeland-Based Livestock Operations in West Texas

Abstract The potential for west Texas ranchers to increase the profitability of their enterprises by becoming more proactive in their management practices by using seasonal climate forecasts is investigated using a focus group and ecological–economic modeling. The focus group felt forecasts could potentially be used in making decisions concerning stocking rates, brush control, and deer herd management. Further, the focus group raised concerns about the potential misuse of “value-added” forage forecasts. These concerns necessitate a revisiting of the value-added concept by the climate-forecasting community. Using only stocking-rate decisions, the potential value of seasonal forage forecasts is estimated. As expected, the economic results suggest the value of the forecasts depends on the restocking and destocking price along with other economic factors. More important, the economic results and focus-group reactions to these results suggest the need for multiyear modeling when examining the potential impact ...

Optimal Strategies for Marketing Calves and Yearlings from Rangeland

Many of the problems encountered in ranching stem from the uncertainty associated with forage availability and the relatively stable forage requirements of the traditional cow-calf operation. This results in underutilization of forage during forage surpluses and costly overutilization during shortages. Smaller cow herds combined with the possibility of carrying calves over to the following spring and/or fall allows forage requirements to be manipulated in response to forage availability. Dynamic programming results suggest that smaller cow-calf-yearling operations have potential to increase expected net returns over a larger cow-calf operation.

Centrality of the Ranching Lifestyle and Attitudes Toward a Voluntary Incentive Program to Protect Endangered Species

Abstract The Endangered Species Act of 1973 has served as the defacto biodiversity policy in the United States; however, heavy-handed implementation early in the acts history led private landowners to avoid managing land to benefit endangered species. By reducing costs and increasing benefits to landowners, voluntary incentive programs (VIPs) potentially bridge the gap between a policy that discourages beneficial land management on private lands and the need to enhance recovery efforts. However, the effectiveness of VIPs is bound to landowner participation. With the use of a sample of rangeland landowners in central Texas, we examined the potential for private landowners to enroll in an incentive program to protect and maintain habitat for endangered songbirds. First, we characterized landowners based on the centrality of production-oriented agriculture to their lifestyle. This measure of lifestyle centrality was comprised of self-identification as a rancher/farmer, dependence on land for income, and rootedness to the land. Second, we examined the relationship between lifestyle centrality, attitude, and participation in a VIP. With the use of structural-equation modeling, we found attitude toward enrolling mediated the relationship between centrality and a landowners intention to enroll in a VIP. In addition to demographic analyses, social variables such as attitudes, beliefs, and motivations are needed to understand fully the multiple underlying reasons for participation and nonparticipation in a VIP and to design effective interventions to enhance participation.

Management systems analysis as guidance for effective interdisciplinary grazingland research

Abstract Management systems analysis offers scientists a way to link field research with the unique decision environment of private ranch firms. This systematic approach helps clearly identify research needs and offers a high degree of professional security when basic research is brought under scrutiny by commodity groups. A decision support system reflecting management systems analysis is outlined based on our experiences in developing integrated brush management systems. Understanding human needs, priorities and perceptions influencing decisions unique to each rancher is critical to designing applicable decision support systems. The decision support process causes the orderly organization of current knowledge, an assessment of level of precision required to make a decision, and the determination of knowledge limiting the process in an interdisciplinary environment. A series of feedback mechanisms from systems analysis, decision analysis and field research is a continuous iterative process which must be recognized by research organizations to facilitate incorporation of research results into decision support systems and to identify and focus future research needs. Organization, management and pitfalls of interdisciplinary research for development of management systems analysis is presented.

Assessing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Climate Change on Grazinglands

This paper begins with an introduction to human/grazingland interaction, including its history and a description of the general problems in analyzing and assessing human use of this vast resource. The second section provides a review and synopsis of the current state of modeling the socioeconomic aspects of grazinglands. Aspects of biophysical models which can provide useful information on grazingland ecology and variability in the associated resources and human habitat are discussed. Models assessing human activity in relation to grazinglands are reviewed and a few examples of linkage of biophysical and socioeconomic models into integrated assessments for policy analysis are discussed. Modeling the socioeconomic impacts of climate change is discussed in the last section of this report. Problems encountered in incorporating changes in technology and adaptation to such changes are delineated and a model (FLIPSIM) designed to incorporate technological change is discussed. Methods for incorporating technological change and natural adaptation after climate change are then explored with emphasis on use of macro models as a means of parameterizing region specific micro models. The degree of reliability and resolution needed for models to be useful to policy analysts are assessed and it is argued that coarser resolution models are more efficient. The paper ends with an illustration of one type of analysis of socioeconomic impacts of climate change on grasslands that can be conducted with the current data and methodology using a series of models and a ‘representative firm’ approach.

Risk Management Strategies to Reduce Net Income Variability for Farmers

The most useful and practical strategy available for reducing variability of net farm income is ascertained. Of the many risk management tools presently available, five of the most commonly used are simultaneously incorporated in an empirically tested model. Quadratic programming provides the basis for decision-making in risk management wherein expected utility is assumed to be a function of the mean and variance of net income. Results demonstrate that farmers can reduce production and price risks when a combination strategy including a diversified crop production plan and participation in the futures market and the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) is implemented.

An Economic Comparison of Prescribed Extreme Fire and Alternative Methods for Managing Invasive Brush Species in Texas: a Modeling Approach

This article presents the results of a study to determine the economic feasibility of using prescribed fire as a rangeland restoration practice on private land when ambient air temperature is greater than and humidity less than the standards endorsed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic effectiveness of using prescribed summer burns compared to more commonly used practices for managing invasive woody plants. The research incorporates four contiguous counties in the Rolling Plains, Edwards Plateau and South Texas Plains eco-regions in Texas. Focus group meetings were held with landowners and NRCS and Texas AgriLife Extension personnel to obtain information about the most common economic uses of rangeland resources by landowners, the dominant invasive brush species, and the most commonly used practices and associated costs for controlling these invasive plants. An investment feasibility model was used to compare the economic efficacy of applying extreme fire and other commonly applied treatments to manage invasive brush species in the three Texas eco-regions. The economic analysis indicated that extreme fire was economically superior in all three regions and was the only treatment alternative that resulted in positive returns on investments in the treatments. The analysis included cost-share, which indicated increased returns for extreme fire and less negative returns for alternative treatments. The results of our study have implications for the review of current NRCS technical standards with respect to prescribed fire.

Decision support software for estimating the economic efficiency of grazingland production.

Decision support software has evolved in a number of disciplines to facilitate efficient allocation of resources. Such tools are especially useful where the response of complex systems to human activity are diicult to predict. Decision support systems empower managers to rapidly analyze the ecological and economic implications of alternative management strategies. The Grazingland Alternative Analysis Tool (GAAT), has been developed to estimate the economic efficiency of a wide range of grazingland production systems. Systems that can be analyzed, either individually or in combination, include livestock, wildlife, leased grazing, gram and forage crops, wood products and other nonforage crops. The planning horizon, discount rate, available forage, consumption by class of animal, herd management practices, product yields, product and input prices, and improvement investments must be specified by the user. The GAAT program calculates the resulting annual forage balance for all enterprises being analyzed and the net present value and internal rate of return for the specified management interventions during the planning period. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the flexibility of GAAT for analyzing the economic efficiency of grazingland production systems. The fmt example analyzes the use of prescribed burning to control Ashe juniper (Juniper ashei Buckholz) and the second determines the economic effect of changing a dairy from a concentrate-dependent to a grazingdependent system.

Economic implications of brush treatments to improve water yield

Abstract One possible method of increasing water yield in some water-poor areas is through brush management. Economic modeling of brush control programs designed to improve water yield has been performed for numerous Texas watersheds. These studies assumed a single criteria brush control program. This single criteria program may have negative impacts on certain wildlife habitats, is likely unacceptable to landowners, and does not incorporate additional restoration practices. Our study analyzed the economic consequences of 3 brush management/restoration scenarios for the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone and Twin Buttes watersheds and the drainage basins contained within. Economic measures included total public cost (