Conference Agenda

Endangered species face growing threats from climate change and ecosystem degradation, prompting calls to shift from traditional species-specific protections to more holistic, ecosystem-based approaches. This paper evaluates a prominent example of such a shift: the 2011 U.S. Revised Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl (NSO), which relaxed restrictions on fuel treatments in protected habitat to reduce wildfire risk. Using high-resolution spatial data from 2006–2023 and a matched difference-in-differences framework, we find that the policy led to a substantial increase in fuel treatment activity—approximately 91,000 additional acres—within NSO-designated habitat, with no evidence of reallocation away from other areas. These treatments generated over $1 billion in economic benefits, primarily through reduced wildfire suppression costs. However, ecological benefits were limited: the policy prevented moderate- to high-severity fire on only 1,000–2,000 acres of NSO habitat and old-growth forest, reflecting their limited effectiveness in reducing burn severity. These findings underscore the potential for ecosystem-based conservation reforms to deliver economic returns, while highlighting the persistent challenges of meeting ecological objectives under existing regulatory, funding, and capacity constraints.