Michael C. Farmer

Reducing the Risk of Biological Invasion by Creating Incentives for Pet Sellers and Owners to Do the Right Thing1,2

Abstract Invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity and economic interests, with many introductions resulting from actions of people involved in pet and ornamental plant businesses. Invasive species eventually end up in the care of the general public, with most costs born by society rather than businesses or owners: a classic economic externality. Although standard economic instruments used to address externalities are useful, they require considerable extension in this case. Simple taxation of the trade has been suggested and can reduce the volume of trade, but taxes do little to discipline the riskiest actors in the market. Using reptiles and amphibians as our focus, we provide an outline for a mechanism addressing invasive species issues, focusing primarily on the local level. We propose to collect funds from the trade and apply them specifically to support (1) a national resource center offering information and training; (2) programs to professionalize local education and response teams, focusing on pet store owners, hobbyist organizations, and first responders; (3) an incentive program to encourage pet stores to take back unwanted animals; (4) a tracking system for identifying and penalizing owners of newly released animals; and (5) a rapid-response system to address newly reported invasives. Participation by local entities helps them avoid uniform policies from the national level that are typically both more onerous and less effective. To provide an additional incentive for the industry at large to participate in the process, the level of taxation could decrease as problems diminish.

Bird diversity indicates ecological value in urban home prices

It is known that public greenspaces contribute positively to urban home prices; yet urban ecologists also have known that not all greenspaces are equally valuable. Also some ecologically valuable space appears on private residences, not only public spaces. This work examines directly whether using a variable derived from bird species richness and relative abundance adds new information regarding ecological value and if high values of that variable significantly improve urban housing prices. We collected information on approximately 368 home sales in Lubbock, TX from 2008 to 2009 from the Multiple Listing Service: Sale Price, Square Footage, Lot Size and Age in 17 neighborhoods identified by the Lubbock Realtor Association. We conducted bird counts in the vicinity of each home sale and recorded both the total numbers of birds and the number of bird species identified in a particular class—less ubiquitous bird species. Finally, we used GIS to record the percentage of tree cover in the immediate area surrounding each sale. We constructed a predictive model for a bird relative abundance and species richness variable (Bird) from AICc statistics. Home price for each sale then was regressed against the predicted value of ‘Bird’ from the selected model and regressed against home price along with other attributes from the Multiple Listing Service. The predicted value for Bird finds that the addition of another desirable, less ubiquitous bird species improves mean home price by

A finite mixture model of heterogeneous anchoring with distinct anchoring patterns

32,028, likely due to the human created landscapes on private properties immediately surrounding a home sale. Curiously, the presence of a nearby park neither explained variation in the ecological indicator nor contributed to home price elevation. This deliberately simple and inexpensive indicator helped to direct attention to the composition of local landscapes in specific areas to assess joint ecological and economic gains rather than presume a priori that open greenspace jointly satisfies these dual objectives.

A Pasture-Based Model for Extended Drought Management, Long-Term Sustainability, and Economic Viability in the Southern High Plains

Bayesian models of starting price effects in contingent valuation studies have been used to track and to correct for starting price effects for more than two decades. Since then, the single parameter form that has been used to estimate the starting price effect has been adapted to distinguish among strategically induced, Bayesian or yea-saying responses (Whitehead, 2002). Recent works, however, show that these diagnostics can be inaccurate if heterogeneity exists in the value of the updating parameter. This work allows a more flexible functional form, beyond the single updating parameter, to capture a potentially richer set of starting price effects that may operate in a single dataset. First we employ a finite mixture model to sort respondents into latent classes. The finite mixture model locates three distinct types (latent classes) of respondents, and each exhibits a discretely different starting price-affected behaviour in a subsequent regression. Heterogeneity does not follow a continuous distribution across one starting price effect, such as a Bayesian updating parameter, that might be captured by a random parameter estimator. Rather effects fall into discrete classes. Researchers will need to better match theory to the diverse array of starting price effects detected.

Feasibility of an Adaptable Biorefinery Platform: Addressing the Delivery Scale Dilemma under Drought Risk

Declines in water levels in the Ogallala aquifer will require production alternatives to irrigated agriculture on the Southern High Plains. This underscores an imperative to develop explicit drought management protocols. To meet this challenge we introduce a proof-of-concept drought management protocol for a forage-based rangeland beef production process that operates in concert with a multi-product cash crop system. Initial findings suggest the system is more profitable than dryland cotton and nearly as profitable as irrigated cotton today. The use of native rangeland and WW-B.Dahl bluestems on the range and the intensive multi-crop system with reduced irrigation are independently research-validated models. The immediate benefit of the protocol is that the integrated system withstands a protracted drought, implemented in phases to minimize disruption. The plan relies on blending native rangeland and WW-B.Dahl old world bluestem pastures on the range. Beef production integrates into the cropping system to supply nitrogen while cattle access forages. To sustain a two-year drought, our program moves animals among native rangeland, WW-B.Dahl-improved pastures, and the cropping system to sustain herd size. Incorporating WW-B.Dahl into the drought plan diversifies choices, lowers economic risks of the integrated system and encourages more ecologically sound native rangeland management.

Household diversity and market segmentation within a single neighborhood

Conversion of biomass to electricity is often not economically feasible as a result of large transportation costs and low output prices. We build a model of an adaptable biorefinery situated at an agri-processing facility that already has biomass on-site and consider the optimal scale of the plant to achieve a price premium by selling peaking power given uncertain biomass deliveries year over year as a result of climatic variability. We find that, for conservative electricity prices, a plant situated near cotton gins in Texas could operate with positive expected net revenue while converting on average only 38% of available biomass for peak electricity prices.