We empirically investigate the effects of the Northwest Forest Plan on two widely-used economic indicators: employment growth and net migration. We find weak evidence that that setting aside 10 million acres of productive forest land for biodiversity protection had a large, but short-lived...

As with many environmental issues, debates about increasing public conservation lands in the Northern Forest region frequently center on a perceived tradeoff between jobs and the environment. In particular, opponents of conservation lands often argue that employment will decline significantly...