Selecting biological reserves cost-effectively: An application to terrestrial vertebrate conservation in Oregon

Concerns that the loss of habitat have greatly increased species extinction rates has led to calls for establishing biological reserves to preserve ke y habitat. In this paper, we study reserve site selection for terrestrial v ertebrates in Oregon using data on species ranges and land values. We find cost-effective strategies that represent a maximum number of species for a given conservation budget. By varying the budget, we find the cost of obtai ning various levels of representation. In general, effective conservation d erision-making requires integrated analysis of both biological and economic data.