INR News and Notes

At the Oregon Business Summit on December 3, 2007, Bill Gaffi and Allen Alley discussed Oregon’s opportunity to gain environmental and economic benefits from the buying and selling of ecosystems services (link to PDF). Many Oregonians are already moving forward to develop markets for ecosystem services, ranging from the Willamette Ecosystem Marketplace project of the Willamette Partnership, to the Deschutes Water Bank.

The Duke Environmental Leadership Program held a workshop on Ecosystem Services and Valuation on December 17-18, 2007 for state agency heads from throughout the country. Top experts addressed a range of markets from carbon offsets and nutrient trading to wetlands credits and conservation banking. Oregon was represented by Gail Achterman of INR and David Primovich of the Willamette Partnership. Many other states, such as North Carolina, New Jersey, Florida and California, are aggressively developing ecosystem service markets.

Sally Duncan of INR is working with David Primovich and others to develop an action plan for the development of ecosystem services markets in Oregon. Expect to hear more about these new markets between now and the 2009 Legislative Session.

If you’d like to study this important topic, a good place to start from a policy perspective is The Law and Policy of Ecosystems Services (Island Press, 2007) by J. D. Ruhl, Chris Lant and Steve Kraft.

We’ve decided to try out a weblog as a way to communicate about what INR staff is doing and, more importantly, what we learn about Oregonians and Oregon. We are committed to providing Oregonians with ready access to current, science-based information and methods for better understanding our resource management challenges and developing solutions. With this blog, we hope to build a network of people who share our interests and stimulate discussion that will enrich our work.

We are particularly interested in linking local, state and federal policy makers with university researchers–whether faculty, graduate students or undergraduates. We will share what we learn about research needs and hope a growing community picks them up and addresses them.

We are interested in sharing other blogs and websites offering balanced views on natural resource and environmental issues. One of our favorites is Susan Smith’s blog on environmental law. Susan is a professor at Willamette Law School in Salem, Oregon. Please let us know about other blogs you find informative and reliable on the environment and natural resources.

All INR staff will be posting to this site. So look forward to more.