Professor Laura Lopez-Hoffman receives U.S. Forest Service Excellence in Research Application Award
Dec. 11, 2013
SNRE's own Professor Laura Lopez-Hoffman has received this year?s U.S. Forest Service Excellence in Research Application Award along with fellow researchers Darius Semmens, and Jay Diffendorfer (School of Natural Resources and Environment, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, University of Arizona, USGS, Denver Federal Center).
This collaboration of researchers are being recognized for the production of an innovative research study on the value associated with migratory species and wilderness. The research itself focuses heavily on what is referred to as ?supporting services.? While the protection of wilderness attributes is known to support flora, fauna and natural processes, the actual efforts to calculate the magnitude of these benefits is almost nonexistent. Quantifying the spatial subsidies one location provides to, or receives, from others may become much more common in a future globalized world. This team describes not only a process to calculate these migratory values, but also points out important data needs in order to do this. This research is an outstanding example of current research to assist managers in developing decision support tools and communicating tradeoffs to a diverse set of stakeholders.