Category Archives: Natural Resources

How have wildfires affected the value of agricultural land in Oregon?

By Kenneth Annan and Dan Bigelow Disclaimer: This post presents an updated version of a paper I presented at the 2025 AAEA Conference. The results are preliminary and have not been peer-reviewed.           Wildfires pose environmental, health, and economic threats … Continue reading

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Are farmland conservation easements associated with greater farm investment?

In this post, I’m going to present an overview of a recently published paper on the relationship between farmland conservation easements and farm investment. Before I dive into the paper, I first want to provide a brief overview of how … Continue reading

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Farmland loss and land development: More on the misuse of statistics from the Census of Agriculture

During last week’s hearing for the Oregon Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire, Kelly Howsley-Glover (President, The Association of County Planning Directors) cited some of my blog posts concerning how to interpret the decrease in Oregon’s farmland reported in … Continue reading

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Recent trends in the price of Oregon’s timberland

A large proportion of Oregon’s land is forested. Based on a 2024 Oregon Department of Forestry estimate, forestland covers 10.4-11.3 million acres (about 39%) of the state’s non-federal land. Oregon’s forest products sector is nationally significant, as we consistently lead … Continue reading

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The urgent need to improve groundwater management

William Jaeger Groundwater is one of the most challenging resources to manage, in large part because it is hidden below ground and thus poorly understood. Many regions of the world have a high dependence on groundwater for agricultural, municipal, and … Continue reading

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