Opportunity costs of spotted owl management options for British Columbia

It is estimated that there are fewer than 100 pairs of northern spotted owls in Canada all located in the southwestern mainland of British Columbia. In 1986, the spotted owl was designated as an endangered species. A recovery plan was developed setting out six management options to stabilize spotted owl populations and eventually lead to an improvement in the status of the species. The purpose of the present paper is to report estimates of the opportunity costs of the options for recovering the owl populations. The primary opportunity costs of the recovery options would be the foregone timber harvests in the area inhabited by spotted owls. Aggregate and annual household opportunity cost estimates are reported. The paper also describes some of the benefits that can arise from the protection of endangered species and discusses some problems in measuring these values.