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Lucas Bair

Lucas Bair is an economist with the Southwest Biological Science Center.

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Rainbow trout downstream of Glen Canyon Dam in the Colorado River

Is timing really everything? Evaluating Resource Response to Spring Disturbance Flows

Glen Canyon Dam has altered ecological processes of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Before the dam was built, the Colorado River experienced seasonable variable flow rates, including springtime flooding events. These spring floods scoured the river bottom and enhanced natural processes that sustained the Colorado River ecosystem. Since the dam’s construction in 1963, springtime floods have...
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Ecosystems, Species Management Research Program, Southwest Biological Science Center
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Is timing really everything? Evaluating Resource Response to Spring Disturbance Flows

Glen Canyon Dam has altered ecological processes of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Before the dam was built, the Colorado River experienced seasonable variable flow rates, including springtime flooding events. These spring floods scoured the river bottom and enhanced natural processes that sustained the Colorado River ecosystem. Since the dam’s construction in 1963, springtime floods have...
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Anglers departing the boat dock at Lees Ferry, AZ with canyon walls in the background.

Economics of Outdoor Recreation

Economic research at Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center is used to determine economic benefits of outdoor recreation in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area below Glen Canyon Dam and in Grand Canyon National Park, as affected by operation of Glen Canyon Dam. This research identifies recreationists’ preferences for attributes associated with their trips, spending that occurs regionally...
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Southwest Biological Science Center
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Economics of Outdoor Recreation

Economic research at Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center is used to determine economic benefits of outdoor recreation in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area below Glen Canyon Dam and in Grand Canyon National Park, as affected by operation of Glen Canyon Dam. This research identifies recreationists’ preferences for attributes associated with their trips, spending that occurs regionally...
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Human Factors of Water Availability in the Delaware River Basin

Human factors that influence water availability in the Basin were discovered by reviewing hundreds of published literature items and articles from the literature following an extensive keyword search. The different factors were drawn from reviewing the literature, and datasets to support the factor were researched across open data catalogs and the world wide web. Data related to the Human Factors
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Water Resources

Human Factors of Water Availability in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Human factors that influence water availability in the Basin were discovered by reviewing hundreds of published literature items and articles from the literature following an extensive keyword search. The different factors were drawn from reviewing the literature, and datasets to support the factor were researched across open data catalogs and the world wide web. Data related to the Human Factors
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Water Resources

Bioeconomic model population data, Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA

These data were estimated for use in the bioecomomic model simulation of the rainbow trout population in the Colorado River in Marble Canyon. The initial rainbow trout abundance is a vector (RBT_intN) representing the population of rainbow trout within each river segment (151 mile long sergments) along the mainstem of the Colorado River from Lees Ferry to 151 river miles downstream. The movement m
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Southwest Biological Science Center

Grand Canyon Whitewater Boater Data, Convergent Validity between Willingness to Pay Elicitation Methods

These data were complied for the primary analysis underlying the results presented in the manuscript associated with these data (see Larger Work Citation). The data was collected from a 2015 survey of private party Grand Canyon boaters. The open document file contains 3 data sheets: 1) variables used in the Table 2 comparison of samples, 2) the core dichotomous choice contingent valuation question
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Southwest Biological Science Center

Grand Canyon Whitewater Boater Data, Temporal Stability of Willingness to Pay Values

These data were complied for the primary analysis underlying the resuts presented in Neher et al., Testing the Limits of Temporal Stability: Willingness to Pay Values Among Grand Canyon Whitewater Boaters across Decades. The data is a combination of data collected for a 1985 survey of private party Grand Canyon boaters, and a 2015 replication survey for that same recreational user group. The excel
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Southwest Biological Science Center
Filter Total Items: 15

Proceedings of the Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Reporting Meeting to the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program

(Hartwell) This report is prepared primarily to account for work conducted and products delivered in FY 2022 by GCMRC and to inform the Technical Work Group of science conducted by GCMRC and its cooperators in support of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP). It includes a summary of accomplishments, modifications to work plans, results, and recommendations related to projects i
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Economic benefits supported by surface water in eastern Oregon’s Harney Basin

The Harney Basin is a closed river basin in southeastern Oregon. Surface water in the basin is used for a variety of social, economic, and ecological benefits. While some surface water uses compete with one another, others are complementary or jointly produce multiple beneficial outcomes. The objective of this study is to conduct a baseline economic assessment of surface water in the Basin as it r
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Ecosystems, Fort Collins Science Center

Economic assessment of surface water in the Harney Basin, Oregon

Executive SummaryThe Harney Basin is a closed river basin in southeastern Oregon. Surface water in the basin is used for a variety of social, economic, and ecological benefits. While some surface water uses compete with one another, others are complementary or jointly produce multiple beneficial outcomes. The objective of this study is to conduct an economic assessment of surface water in the basi
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Assessing the population impacts and cost‐effectiveness of a conservation translocation

Managers often move, or translocate, organisms into habitats that are assumed to be suitable, however the consequences of these translocations are usually not rigorously assessed. Robust assessment of these management experiments should consider impacts to both donor and recipient populations and compare the cost‐effectiveness of translocations to other actions.Here we evaluate translocations of a
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Greenhouse gas emissions from an arid-zone reservoir and their environmental policy significance: Results from existing global models and an exploratory dataset

Reservoirs in arid regions often provide critical water storage but little is known about their greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. While there is growing appreciation of the role reservoirs play as GHG sources, there is a lack of understanding of GHG emission dynamics from reservoirs in arid regions and implications for environmental policy. Here we present initial GHG emission measurements from Lake
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

The biggest bang for the buck: Cost‐effective vegetation treatment outcomes across drylands of the western United States

Restoration and rehabilitation are globally implemented to improve ecosystem condition but often without tracking treatment expenditures relative to ecological outcomes. We evaluated the cost‐effectiveness of widely conducted woody plant and herbaceous invasive plant removals and seeding treatments in drylands of the western United States from 2004 to 2018 to determine how land managers can optimi
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Safety in numbers: Cost-effective endangered species management for viable populations

We develop a bioeconomic model to identify the cost-effective control of an invasive species (rain-bow trout) to achieve a population viability goal for an endangered species (humpback chub) in the Grand Canyon of the U.S. southwest. The population viability optimization problem is no-toriously difficult to solve due to a probabilistic restriction on joint outcomes (survival) over many periods. We
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Incorporating social-ecological considerations into basin-wide responses to climate change in the Colorado River Basin

During the last 50 years, construction of dams in the western United States declined. This is partly because of increasing recognition of diverse and unintended social-ecological consequences of dams. Today, resource managers are recognizing the wide array of tradeoffs and are including a more diverse group of stakeholders in decision making for individual dams. Yet decisions at the regional scale
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Effects of high-flow experiments on other resources: Recreation and hydropower

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA) and Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) offer unique recreational opportunities. An objective in the Long-Term Experimental and Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement (LTEMP EIS) is to maintain and improve the quality of recreational experiences (U.S. Department of the Interior, 2016). Some of the higher valued recreational activities include day-
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Brown trout in the Lees Ferry reach of the Colorado River—Evaluation of causal hypotheses and potential interventions

Over the period 2014–2016, the number of nonnative brown trout (Salmo trutta) captured during routine monitoring in the Lees Ferry reach of the Colorado River, downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, began increasing. Management agencies and stakeholders have questioned whether the increase in brown trout in the Lees Ferry reach represents a threat to the endangered humpback chub (Gila cypha), to the rainb
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Ecosystems, Species Management Research Program, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Southwest Biological Science Center

Convergent validity between willingness to pay elicitation methods: An application to Grand Canyon whitewater boaters

We directly compare trip willingness to pay (WTP) values between dichotomous choice contingent valuation (DCCV) and discrete choice experiment (DCE) stated preference surveys of private party Grand Canyon whitewater boaters. The consistency of DCCV and DCE estimates is debated in the literature, and this study contributes to the body of work comparing the methods. Comparisons were made of mean WTP
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center

Identifying cost-effective invasive species control to enhance endangered species populations in the Grand Canyon, USA

Recovering endangered species populations when confronted with the threat of invasive species is an ongoing natural resource management challenge. While eradication of the invasive species is often the optimal economic solution, it may not be a feasible nor desirable management action in other cases. For example, when invasive species are desired in one area, but disperse into areas managed for en
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Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center
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RESEARCH BRIEF: Cost- benefit analysis of vegetation removal + seeding

Weighing costs relative to outcomes: woody and invasive plant removal followed by seeding in shrublands and woodlands.

New study by RAMPS...

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