Browsing by Author "Smith, David"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Economic and Environmental Costs and Benefits of Living Snow Fences: Safety, Mobility, and Transportation Authority Benefits, Farmer Costs, and Carbon Impacts
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2012-02) Wyatt, Gary; Zamora, Diomy; Smith, David; Schroeder, Sierra; Paudel, Dinesh; Knight, Joe; Kilberg, Don; Current, Dean; Gullickson, Dan; Taff, Steve
    Blowing and drifting snow on Minnesota's roadways is a transportation efficiency and safety concern. Establishing standing corn rows and living snow fences improves driver visibility, road surface conditions, and has the potential to lower costs of road maintenance as well as accidents attributed to blowing and drifting snow. It also has the potential to sequester carbon and avoid the carbon emissions of snow removal operations. In recent years the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has paid farmers to leave standing corn rows to protect identified snow problem roadways. They have paid farmers $1.50 per bushel above market price. With increasing demand for corn to fuel the ethanol industry, paying $1.50 per bushel above market price may not be sufficient incentive for leaving standing corn rows. Also, with MnDOT’s memorandum of understanding with USDA to plant living snow fences through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), now is an opportune time to review MnDOT’s annual payment structure to farmers and prepare a new one. This project has: 1) developed a calculator to estimate payments for farmers that includes consideration of safety and snow removal cost savings; 2) estimated potential income from carbon payments; 3) worked closely with MnDOT engineers and plow operators, estimated the safety and snow removal costs and carbon emissions avoided by MnDOT through establishing living snow fences; and 4) evaluated farmers’ willingness to establish living snow fences and identified farmers/landowners’ constraints to adoption. Data is provided to MnDOT to assist staff in its decision making related to their Living Snow Fence Program.
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    The Economics of Perennial Bioenergy Crop Production Under Risk and Uncertainty: Understanding Economic and Policy Incentives
    (2015-07) Smith, David
    In order to reduce economic and national security risks, U.S. energy policy, in 2005 and 2007, mandated production of renewable biofuels. By 2014, the renewable biofuel industry was consuming approximately one-third of domestic corn and soybean production. To meet this growing demand, conservation and pastureland has been cultivated with corn and soybean, resulting in a reduction in ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, wildlife habitat and water quality. Perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., switchgrass) offer a more sustainable alternative. However, unlike annual crops, farmers and landowners have little experience with perennial bioenergy crop production. Uncertainty in production and prices will impact the supply of these novel crops into an emerging market. Using a stated preference method, I show that agricultural landowners are willing to produce perennial bioenergy crops, given competitive returns, but only on a portion of their land. These results suggest that risk and uncertainty are important considerations in perennial bioenergy crop supply. Next, using a state-contingent approach to choice under uncertainty, I characterize the comparative static effects of government incentives to promote perennial bioenergy crop production. I show that uncertainty can dampen the impact of these incentives and in some cases even decrease perennial bioenergy acreage. Finally, I estimate the magnitude of the relative risks and the fixed cost hurdle using a discrete/continuous structural model. I show that agricultural landowners perceive a relatively high level of risk from perennial bioenergy crop production and are less willing to produce short rotation woody crops than perennial grasses.
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    Web-Based Preventative Blowing and Drifting Snow Control Calculator Decision Tool
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2015-05) Wyatt, Gary; Zamora, Diomy; Smith, David; Gullickson, Dan; Current, Dean
    Blowing and drifting snow on Minnesota's roadways are transportation efficiency and safety concerns. Establishing standing corn rows, living and structural snow fences or proper grading during road construction improves driver visibility and road surface conditions and has the potential to lower costs of road maintenance as well as crashes attributed to blowing and drifting snow. These snow control solutions can also provide environmental benefits including carbon sequestration and avoidance of carbon emissions of snow removal operations. In recent years, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has paid farmers to establish snow control practices to protect identified snow problem roadways. Using public funds to pay landowners to establish land practices, which benefit the public and reduce MnDOT winter costs, needs to be justified. In 2012, our research team created a Microsoft Excel cost-benefit-payment calculator to estimate payments to farmers that included consideration of safety and snow removal cost savings to the public and the transportation agency. We worked closely with MnDOT engineers and plow operators to estimate the safety and snow removal costs. This project translated the Microsoft Excel tool to a web-based tool that can be used on laptops, smartphones and tablets. Beta testing has been done with transportation officials to improve the web tool. Outreach plans are being conducted to inform transportation agencies of this tool and the cost benefit analysis it offers.
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    White paper: Preserving the Integrity of Manoomin in Minnesota
    (2011) Andow, David; Bauer, Theresa; Belcourt, Mark; Bloom, Paul; Child, Brenda; Doerfler, Jill; Eule-Nashoba, Amber; Heidel, Thelma; Kokotovich, Adam; Lodge, Alexandra; LaGarde, Joe; Lorenz, Karl; Mendoza, Louis; Mohl, Emily; Osborne, Jake; Prescott, Kristina; Schultz, Paul; Smith, David; Solarz, Susan; Walker, Rachel
    White paper: Preserving the Integrity of Manoomin in Minnesota 2011