Grassland restoration and recreation in the U.S.: Value and relationship to climate change beliefs and impacts

Despite the myriad ecosystem services grasslands provide, grassland value in the United States and abroad is understudied. In three essays, I address that knowledge gap. The first uses survey data on grassland visits made by Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota residents between March 2020 and summer 2021 to estimate grassland recreational value. The second uses big visitation data for 16 nationally notable grasslands from January 2019 to April 2022 to estimate grassland recreational value and the causal relationship between weather and demand for grassland visits. I use the causal results to estimate potential future impacts on grassland recreation demand and value under climate change. In the final essay, I use data from a nationally representative choice experiment survey to estimate the value of landscape-level grassland restoration in the U.S. In that analysis, I also explore how providing survey respondents with relevant, accurate information on a politically divisive subject affects value and how that effect depends on an individual's political party affiliation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Wells, Kaylee Katherine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ando, Amy W
• Atallah, Shady S
• Dissanayake, Sahan TM
• Hutchins, Jared

• Grasslands
• Environmental Economics
• Non-market Valuation
• Travel Cost Method
• Climate Change
• United States
• Prairies

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Kaylee Katherine Wells

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129704

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129704