This economist is a research scientist within the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station Goods, Services, and Values Program located in Portland, OR. The Program mission is to conduct and communicate research to advance understanding of relationships among people and forest and rangeland ecosystems.

Responsibilities:

• Plans and conducts research related to understanding the preferences and effects of peoples' decisions regarding natural resources on ecosystem services with the goal of improving government policies and programs.
• Plans and conducts both basic and applied research with a focus on the social and economic dimensions of forest management, ecosystem restoration, and/or natural and human-caused disturbance, such as wildfire and climate change.
• Conducts research in areas such as timber markets; climate change and associated risks (e.g., wildfire); carbon policy and markets; socio-ecological resilience in rural communities; collaboration and public engagement; and public lands recreation.
• Uses approaches that may integrate theory and methods from a number of inter-related social science disciplines, such as political science, economics, cultural geography, anthropology, and sociology, as well as biophysical and computer sciences.
• Collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders, potentially including community leaders, land managers and policymakers, as well as other scientists to produce research that addresses the needs of natural resource managers and policymakers.
• Participates in research that contributes to understanding the characteristics and processes of social-ecological systems at the heart of many natural resource policy and management issues.
• Disseminates research results to peers, managers, policymakers, and others in a variety of formats including articles in refereed journals, presentations at scientific meetings and workshops, and by direct communications with users.