6: Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socio-economic benefits

An economic diversity index can be developed to describe the industries and sectors present in an economy. If economic diversity is defined as “a large number of different types of industries being present in an area” or “the extent to which the economic activity of a region is distributed among a number of industrial sectors,” a summary statistic can be used to describe the diversity of an area and compare it to other areas. Measures such as location quotients compare local areas’ proportional employment in industries to those of a larger region. The Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index measures diversity of employment, considering both numbers of industries present and the distribution of employment across them, against a uniform distribution where employment is equi-proportional across all industries.

The amount of employment generated by the recreation, outdoor education, and tourism industries. Recreation, outdoor education, and tourism supply jobs. The point of this indicator is to understand the contribution to maintenance and enhancement of long term multiple social and economic benefits to meet the needs of society.

Relative employment and incomes in a region are measures of overall economic well-being. Useful metrics include: a. Employment –All full time and part-time works, wage3 and salary jobs (employees), and proprietors (the self-employed) reported by place of work. b. Population- The total number of people by place of residence c. Personal Income- Income from wage and salary employment and proprietors' income (labor earnings), as well as non-labor income sources (dividends, interest, and rent, and transfer payments) reported by place of residence. All income figures will be shown in real terms (i.e., adjusted for inflation). d. Unemployment- The number of people who are jobless, looking for jobs, and available for work divided by the labor force.

Data on these variables provide information on the vitality of the local economy. High numbers in the unemployed, underemployed, and discouraged worker categories could indicate an economy in trouble and a community under stress. Such high numbers occurring in rangeland related industries (e.g., livestock production, recreation, tourism) would provide an indication of pressures on rangeland-dependent livelihoods and lifestyles.

Urban forests provide relief from heat through shade. The more tree canopy in an urban area, the less air conditioning and therefore fewer days using air conditioning. This is one proxy for the energy savings from urban forests.

The amounts of funds and in-kind contributions, like time volunteered, that organizations and individuals contribute to rangeland restoration activities indicate the strength of importance that people place on restoring and maintaining rangelands. These expenditures are made to maintain, enhance, or restore the rangeland ecosystem without explicit future monetary returns necessarily expected from the investment.

This indicator describes forestland in different forest cover types and protected area categories. This indicator can provide the basis for documenting landscape-level changes in the area of forest cover types allocated to each protection-level category as a basis for discussing whether allocations are appropriate in the context of providing other environmental, economic, and social benefits.

Federal transfer payments (e.g., food stamps, social security, Medicare/Medicaid, support for Women, Infants, and Children–WIC) are a relatively stable source of income to individuals and to local, especially county, governments during most economic conditions. This indicator is another aspect of economic resilience and the capacity to endure changes in economic conditions. The presence of such transfers could help counteract some of the adverse effects of poverty and income inequality.

This indicator will produce tabular information on trends in monetary measures of contributions to society and the state’s quality-of-life from three different ecosystem services: recreation, passive use values, and carbon sequestration values. Maintaining and enhancing forest’s non-commodity contributions to state and local economies, communities, and to the state's quality-of-life are very important. These values, such as clean water, habitat for fisheries, and scenery are often taken for granted because they are not generally traded in markets. As such, they have no ‘price’ and are therefore seemingly provided for “free”.

This indicator will produce tabular and graphical information on historical and current trends in sales and competitiveness of the state’s forest products sector.