The Bioeconomic Effects of Timber Harvesting on Recreational and Commercial Salmon and Steelhead Fishing: A Case Study of the Siuslaw National Forest

The economic effects of changes in timber harvest levels on recreational and commercial salmon and steelhead fisheries are estimated by combining a series of simple watershed, habitat, population, and economic models. The economic loss in fishery benefits from future timber harvests on 86,700 acres is estimated to be $1.7 million over a 30-year period. The approach employed in this paper overcomes previous shortcomings in valuing marginal changes in recreational fishing by use of a regional multi-site travel cost demand model that contains fish catch as a site characteristic. Site-specific marginal values per salmon and steelhead caught are derived using this technique.