Planning for cost-effective, Planning for cost-effective, multifunctional farmland preservation:multifunctional farmland preservation:

A case study in California’s Central A case study in California’s Central ValleyValley

Frank Davis, David Stoms, and Jason Kreitler, University of California Santa Barbara

Prioritizing agricultural lands through ecosystem services

• Which services?

• How to map?

• How to use conservation funds most efficiently?

• Where to conserve?

Planning support tool

• To prioritize farmlands for conservation

• Main benefits:– Includes multiple criteria– Incorporates social preferences – Captures expected losses of resources– Operates cost-effectively– GIS based

Criterion valuation method

Land value modeling

• Hedonic analysis

• Observed farmland sales

• Parcel level

Cost-effectiveness

Visualization through Google Earth

Next steps

• Operationalize the software

• Continue refining and generating criteria

• Assess multiple conservation actions (easement vs fee title purchase vs lease/payment for services)

Publications and acknowledgements:

• Davis, F. W., C. J. Costello and D. M. Stoms. 2006. Efficient conservation in a utility-maximization framework. Ecology and Society 11: 33. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art33/.

• Machado, E. A., D. M. Stoms, F. W. Davis, and J. Kreitler. 2006. Prioritizing farmland preservation cost-effectively for multiple objectives. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 61: 250-258.

• Stoms, D. M., P. A. Jantz and F. W. Davis. In preparation. Strategic targeting of farmland preservation for managing urban growth. To be submitted to Journal of the American Planning Association.

• This project is supported by USDA-CSREES grant #2005-35401-15320. We have received excellent guidance from our advisory group of experts: Tim Duane, Julie Gustanski, Ralph Heimlich, Dan Press, Pete Roussopoulos, Rita Schenck, Al Sokolow, and Ed Thompson, Jr. We also are very grateful to the executive director of the Central Valley Farmland Trust, Bill Martin, for his willingness to be the test case.

• For more information see www.biogeog.ucsb.edu/projects/cefarm/cefarm.htm or contact Jason Kreitler jkreitler@bren.ucsb.edu