<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">“Potential Jobs and Wages from Investments in Defensible-Space Approaches to Wildfire Safety”:<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><a href="http://nreconomics.com/reports/2018-04-28_EnvNow_Report.pdf" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://nreconomics.com/reports/2018-04-28_EnvNow_Report.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1526126775176000&usg=AFQjCNFDnIJ_6r4OdADBPFwgOw5CHDdrlQ" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" class="">http://nreconomics.com/reports<wbr class="">/2018-04-28_EnvNow_Report.pdf</a><u class=""></u><u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><u class=""></u> <u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">The study by Ernie Niemi of Natural Resource Economics found that rural communities can create more jobs with better wages by focusing wildfire-related resources on supporting fire-safe modifications around houses rather than by subsidizing logging.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><u class=""></u> <u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">When the timber and biomass power industries seek to steer federal and state funding intended to address wildfire safety into subsidizing logging (”thinning”) projects, these industries try to garner support from rural communities by presenting logging as a source of jobs. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">However, because the timber and biomass industries have become increasingly mechanized and automated, money spent to subsidize logging is not a very efficient job creator.<u class=""> </u><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">An alternate approach to wildfire safety is to focus on activities that directly protect homes from fire. </span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">These activities involve work creating fire-safe conditions in the defensible space zone next to homes and installing fire-safe materials on homes (such as appropriate roofing and screens over vents). However, the job creation benefits from defensible space work are often not considered during wildfire policy discussions. Yet, rural communities can actually experience greater job benefits per dollar invested when government funding is directed to defensible space work.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><u class=""></u> <u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">In the new study, economist Ernie Niemi found that “<i class="">Total jobs under the defensible-space approach would exceed the total jobs under the forest-altering [logging] approach by a ratio of 2.3-to-1. For direct jobs, the ratio would be even higher, 3.4-to-1.”</i> He also found that defensible space work would create better paying jobs--“<i class="">Workers’ wages under the defensible-space approach would exceed the wages under the forest-altering approach by a ratio of 1.4-to-1 for all workers and by 1.8-to-1 for workers directly employed by the contractors</i>.”<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><u class=""></u> <u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">As the study concludes, “<i class="">In sum, investment in defensible-space activities can provide not just wildfire-safety benefits but also significant job-creation benefits for rural communities in California. Moreover, the information currently available indicates that, in many circumstances, the same level of spending likely will yield more jobs and wages for local workers under the defensible-space approach than under the forest-altering approach</i>.”<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><u class=""></u> <u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">If you are interested in helping to spread word about this study via social media, please consider retweeting this:<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><a href="https://twitter.com/dicapriofdn/status/994627574952353792" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://twitter.com/dicapriofdn/status/994627574952353792&source=gmail&ust=1526126775177000&usg=AFQjCNESdLxBvb_gnu3dyxLaNT_1MVTL0A" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" class="">https://twitter.com/dicapriofd<wbr class="">n/status/994627574952353792</a></div><div class="yj6qo" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br class="">"The big challenge is still to deliver emissions reductions at the pace and scale needed, especially in a world where economies are driven by consumption.”<br class=""><br class="">Sonja van Renssen.The inconvenient truth of failed climate policies. Nature Climate Change MAY 2018<br class=""><br class="">Published online: 27 April 2018 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4" class="">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4</a> </div>
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