Public lands, from large National Forests to urban parks, can influence the socioeconomics of communities. Headwaters Economics (HE) “Public Land Ownership in the United States” online and interactive reports include PAD-US to describe land use across federal agencies. They describe how decisions made by public land managers may influence the local economy, particularly if public lands represent a large portion of the land base. Agency management actions that affect water quality, access to recreation, scenery (and other quality of life amenities), and the extent and type of resource extraction are particularly important.
PAD-US is a key component of HE Economic Profile System (EPS) used by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 35,000 individual users per year to produce custom socioeconomic profiles. Land Use is one of the 14 thematic reports you can run with EPS. PAD-US goes into that report and is updated following USGS publications.
Headwaters Economics is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group working to improve community development and land management by providing credible information and tools for decision makers on topics such as economic development, the value of public lands, wildfire, and fiscal policy. The HE website provides access to user friendly tools and summary reports with well documented analysis methods and frequently updated data sources. (Note: map below shows federal and other lands, but analysis only done on federal lands.)
