Time: 12:00-1:30 PM Mountain Time

Presenter: Ray Rasker, Executive Director, Headwaters Economics

Summary: Ray will present an overview on the link between economic growth and protected public lands, and available software and tools:

• A typology of the ways that conservation provides benefits (jobs, income, tax revenues, non-market values, value from ecosystem services
• A brief review of the literature, focusing on jobs (what has the most currency these days)
• An example: National Monuments interactive tool
• The notion that there are Three Wests, and how communities benefit from conservation depends to a large extent on their access to markets
• An interactive tool showing the Three Wests
• A quick and easy way to learn about YOUR economy -- aimed at non-economists: demonstration of the free, on-line economic profile software and several on-line interactive tools.