Research & Publications

My research focuses on understanding the economic dimensions of land use, natural resources, and climate change.

Showing 19 publications

Journal Article Featured

Evaluating the Current Status of Agriculture-driven Deforestation Across Jurisdictional Scales in the United States Using Foundational, Federal Datasets

Katherine M. Renwick, Christopher W. Woodall, Christopher Mihiar, Lori T. Murray, Ricky Lewis, Peter C. Beeson Environmental Research Letters 2025

Quantifies agriculture-driven deforestation across US jurisdictions using federal datasets, providing a framework for monitoring forest-to-agriculture conversion at multiple scales.

Working Paper Featured

Toward a Timber Asset Account for the United States: A Pilot Account for Georgia

Sonia R. Bruck, Christopher Mihiar, Bin Mei, Thomas Brandeis, Matthew Chambers, Julie L. Hass, Scott Wentland, Travis Warziniack Under review at Land Economics 2025

Develops a timber asset account for Georgia using a novel discount timber price method to value standing timber stocks, estimating total timber assets at $5.9 billion including $244 million in pre-merchantable timber.

Journal Article

Contemporary Patterns of Prescribed Fire and Its Risks and Benefits to Water Quantity and Water Quality Over the Conterminous United States

Yuxin Zhang, Weiwei Li, Peter Caldwell, Stephen D. Sebestyen, Conghong Tang, Ryan Toot, Christopher Mihiar, Zachary Mondry, Yuting Song, Danny Mosher, Ge Sun Environmental Research Letters 2025

Characterizes U.S. prescribed fire patterns from 1984-2022, finding the Southeast accounts for 79% of occurrences and 71% of burned area, and develops a framework balancing ecological benefits against hydrological risks.

Book Chapter

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Managed Forest Systems

Lori T. Murray, Christopher Woodall, Andrew Lister, Keith Stockmann, Hao Gu, Shawn Urbanski, Karin Riley, Christopher Mihiar In: Hanson, W.L., Itle, C. & Edquist, K. (eds) 2024

Comprehensive accounting of greenhouse gas fluxes in managed US forest systems, covering carbon stocks, emissions, and removals across multiple forest management regimes.

Book Chapter

Natural Capital Accounting on Forested Lands in the United States: An Application to the Colorado River Basin

Travis Warziniack, Kenneth Bagstad, Matthew Knowles, Christopher Mihiar, Arpita Nehra, Chris Rhodes Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Approach 2024

Applies natural capital accounting frameworks to value forest ecosystem services in the Colorado River Basin, demonstrating how environmental values can be integrated into economic accounts.

Journal Article

Forested Watersheds Provide the Highest Water Quality Among All Land Cover Types, but the Benefit of This Ecosystem Service Depends on Landscape Context

Peter V. Caldwell, Katherine L. Martin, James M. Vose, Justin S. Baker, Travis W. Warziniack, Jennifer K. Costanza, Gregory E. Frey, Arpita Nehra, Christopher M. Mihiar Science of the Total Environment 2023

Links land cover to water quality across the southeastern U.S., demonstrating that forest cover significantly reduces nutrient and sediment concentrations while highlighting forest conservation as key to drinking water supply resilience.

Book Chapter

Land Resources

Kurt Riitters, John W. Coulston, Christopher Mihiar, Evan B. Brooks, Eric J. Greenfield, Mark D. Nelson USDA Forest Service, Future of America's Forests and Rangelands: Forest Service 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment 2023

Chapter on land resource trends and projections for the 2020 RPA Assessment, analyzing historical patterns and future scenarios for major land use categories across the United States.

Journal Article

The Hidden Value of Trees: Quantifying the Ecosystem Services of Tree Lineages and Their Major Threats Across the Contiguous US

Jeannine M. Cavender-Bares, Erik Nelson, Jose Eduardo Meireles, Jesse R. Lasky, Daniela A. Miteva, David J. Nowak, William D. Pearse, Matthew R. Helmus, Amy E. Zanne, William F. Fagan, Christopher Mihiar, Nicholas Z. Muller, Nathan J.B. Kraft, Stephen Polasky PLOS Sustainability and Transformation 2022

Quantifies the value of U.S. tree ecosystem services at $114 billion annually, revealing that non-market 'hidden' services from carbon storage (51%) and air pollution removal (37%) far exceed commercial timber value (12%).

Dissertation

Essays on Climate Change and Land Use in the United States

Christopher Mihiar Oregon State University, Department of Applied Economics 2018

Doctoral dissertation examining how climate change affects land use decisions and forestland values across the United States, using econometric modeling to project transitions between forests, agriculture, and development.