Restoration of the degraded ecosystem is a global priority for achieving sustainable development. Although increasing ecosystem service is an important goal of ecological restoration, it is rarely used to inform mine reclamation. This study proposed a reclamation strategy that incorporated land suitability analysis and ecosystem service evaluation for a mining site in Liaoning Province, China. We assessed the land suitability for three reclamation alternatives and identified suitable land uses for each location by comparing their suitability levels. For areas that were suitable for multiple land uses with the same suitability level, the future land uses cannot be identified by land suitability analysis alone, and we employed ecosystem services evaluation to determine the optimal reclamation strategy. The results showed that forest could be restored throughout the entire mining site, agricultural land were most suitable in the western and southern parts, and developed land were in northern parts that were closer to roads and city centers. Our study showed that a large mining site can be reclaimed to different land uses and provided a practical framework for integrating ecosystem services into mine reclamation.

The emerald ash borer (EAB) was first detected in North America in 2002, and since its introduction, this invasive pest has killed millions of ash trees. While EAB kills native North American ash trees in all settings, its impacts have been especially large in urban areas where ash has been a dominant street tree, especially in residential areas. While some management costs, such as insecticide treatment, tree removal, or tree replacement, are relatively straightforward to compute, the impact that EAB has had on residential property values is less clear. To better understand the economic cost of EAB in urban settings, we conducted a hedonic property value analysis to evaluate the impact of ash tree damages due to EAB infestation on housing sales prices. This study was conducted in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which had high stocking levels of ash trees prior to EAB’s arrival. The objectives of the study are to investigate: (1) how EAB-infested ash trees affect property values; (2) whether the benefits from healthy ash trees to property value change after arrival of EAB; and (3) whether healthy ash trees located within infested neighborhoods provide the same benefits as the healthy ash trees located outside of infested neighborhoods. In general, our results show that the EAB outbreak has had a negative impact on home values for properties located in close proximity to the ash tree component of the urban forest. This result holds true for neighborhoods where EAB does not yet pose an imminent threat, and is amplified for neighborhoods where EAB has been detected. Our results highlight the early stages of a dynamic economic process that impacts urban residential property owners subject to the risk of EAB or other tree pests and diseases. In general, we find that forward-looking behavior of residential property owners is capitalized into property values during the process of forest pest infestation.

Oaks (Quercus spp.) are keystone species in many ecosystems and are ecologically as well as economically valuable. The objective of this study was to gather and evaluate information from a diverse group of oak experts on current and future biotic and abiotic threats to oaks in the eastern United States. Using a Delphi survey method with three iterative surveys, we found that oak decline and climate change were identified as critical current and future threats, respectively, in this region. Focusing on climate change, experts were asked a series of questions to assess its potential future temporal and spatial impact on oaks. With respect to climate change, the majority of experts surveyed believe climate change will manifest gradually, although they were generally uncertain about the geographical distribution of climate change in the future, i.e., the areas where oaks are likely to be impacted by climate change in the future. New/emerging pests and pathogens were seen as the most critical future threat by the third survey round. Results from this study can be used to better inform management practices and research priorities for ensuring resilient oak resources for the future.

An understanding of how public preferences vary among different stakeholders toward forest management policies would be helpful in the forest policy design and administration process. In this study, we investigate the preferences toward forest management policies of three stakeholder groups-woodlot owners, environmentalists, and the general public. We used a stated-preference survey to elicit information about stakeholder preferences for forest management practices at Holt Research Forest in Maine. The survey was administered to each group both before and after an on-site experience at the forest. We specifically investigated how information and experience acquired through the on-site experience would influence the preferences of each group. We also conducted a latent class analysis to further explore the preference heterogeneity among survey participants. The results show differences in preferences for forest management policies between stakeholders with the preferences of woodlot owners differing substantially from environmentalists and the general public both before and after the on-site experience. The on-site experience did not have a substantial impact on woodlot owners. In contrast, it increased the consistency of choice decisions among environmentalists and the public.