Menomonie, Wis. – When the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association needed a partner to help quantify the economic impact of environmental efforts its members were making across the state’s 72 counties, it found what it was looking for at University of Wisconsin-Stout.
The resulting research conducted by UW-Stout undergraduates last semester has now been presented at the state and national levels and could shape how county land and water conservation departments are funded in Wisconsin.
Through their research, UW-Stout seniors Helayna Brown and Ella Kemp determined that these departments have an impact on the state economy of at least $43.8 million annually.
Christina Anderson, associate director of the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association, said county conservation departments work directly with farmers and other landowners to protect the farms, forests, shorelines and waters of the state. Their work is vital, but its value can be hard to quantify when it comes time to justify budget requests, Anderson said.
“The state pays for some of the positions in each county, and through the budget process we’re always looking for ways to show their value,” she said. “What’s the return on investment that the state is making on these important staff in every county? We were hoping that the university could help us identify what that return on investment is locally and statewide.”
This led the organization to seek help from Professor Tina Lee, director of both UW-Stout’s Center for Sustainable Communities and its B.S. applied social science program. They found Lee was already well-versed in how county-level land conservation efforts worked.
“It was very nice to work with somebody like her who can jump right in and within one semester have great a product and excellent foundation,” Anderson said.
Multimillion-dollar economic impact tallied
After the project was proposed, Lee brought it to her applied social science capstone course, and she found two seniors willing to undertake the effort: Brown, of Menomonie, and Kemp, of Cedar Falls, Iowa.
The students, both applied social science majors, worked for hundreds of hours over the course of the fall semester on the project. They began by focusing on a survey sent annually by the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) to county conservation departments. The Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association, a Madison-based nonprofit that advocates for those offices and their work, believed that the survey wasn’t fully capturing the value of the work conservation departments were doing. While the survey tallied statistics such as the number of nutrient management plans and acres of cover crops, it didn’t account for the fact that reporting methods varied by county, that project outcomes often take years, nor that much conservation work is indirect.
“It’s harder to quantify the relationship-building and the community impact that we have throughout the work we do,” explained Dunn County Conservationist Chase Cummings, who was among those interviewed by the student researchers. “The public is relying on us to do a lot of things, and it’s hard to put numbers to that.”
The student researchers conducted their own focus group with county conservation workers from around the state, which they followed up with a survey to gather data on topics such as staff time, experience and community engagement. This information was then fed into modeling software to estimate economic impact.
While county conservation offices are typically small, their impact was found to be economically significant: The induced effects, or household spending, generated by conservation budgets totaled $21.6 million annually. In addition, there were direct expenditures of $14 million and indirect effects (such as impacts on supply chains) of $8.1 million. In total, the economic output was an estimated $43.8 million each year.
Students’ skills complement each other
Kemp said the project embodied the real-world impact she was seeking when she enrolled at UW-Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University.
“Instead of solely reading literature and working with previously published data, I was able to meet with people across the state and discuss issues directly impacting Wisconsin communities,” said Kemp, who after graduating in May will take a job as a research analyst with Expert Institute in Milwaukee.
Kemp said the capstone project was especially challenging – and rewarding – because it focused on both qualitative and quantitative questions. “It was definitely a tougher project, but really well worth it in the long run based on the impact that it can have for conservation departments,” she said.
Lee, who advised the capstone alongside Assistant Professor Courtney Juelich, said the two student researchers were able to apply their skills to different aspects of the project.
“Ella is really good at quantitative data analysis both from her background in economics and as a math minor,” Lee explained. She was able to quickly learn the skills needed to conduct the economic impact analysis, and she consulted with Professor Chris Ferguson to use specialized software to do so.
Meanwhile, Lee added, “Helayna is passionate about the environment and has a background in environmental science. She is also more qualitatively oriented and took the lead in conducting and analyzing the focus group and interviews. It really did end up being a wonderful team.”
Brown said she was surprised by how much she and Kemp were able to learn through their research. “When we were first given the project opportunity, I was excited but somewhat skeptical about whether I could actually evaluate and improve a government survey,” she said. “As we got into the work, I was able to apply the methods I’ve learned throughout my academic career. It was great to use the skills I have learned in a project with real-life consequences.”
Brown and Kemp were able to determine that the existing state survey didn’t adequately account for many of the hours county conservation workers spent building relationships nor the work they do to preserve the state’s forests.
“I think that the improved survey will help DATCP achieve its goal in accurately assessing county conservation work,” said Brown, who plans to pursue a graduate degree in environmental studies. “In its current state, the survey is providing them with inaccurate data and that might be misleading legislative decisions. It is my hope that our additions to the survey fully reflect the hard work of department staff and the diversity of Wisconsin.”
Research finds state, national audiences
While their research was only recently completed, Brown and Kemp have already had several opportunities to share it with wider audiences. They were among students from all 13 Universities of Wisconsin campuses to present their work at the state Capitol in Madison during the annual Research in the Rotunda event on March 11. They also were part of the UW-Stout contingent who attended the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, April 13-15, in Richmond, Virginia.
Lee is confident that the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association will be able to use the report, specifically by employing the students’ recommendations to make it easier to track the work being done on the county level.
“Helayna and Ella skillfully blended an analysis of existing data with a deeper dive into the day-to-day work of county land and water conservation departments through talking with them in an open-ended way about their work. They were really able to capture aspects of the work of county departments that aren’t currently measured and use that to make recommendations about how to improve reporting.”
The work is a prime example of how students at Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University extend their focus far beyond the campus.
“This capstone really embodies the polytechnic tenets of applied learning, business and industry collaboration, and career focus,” Lee explained. “Ella and Helayna were able to apply what they have learned in the social sciences to a real-world problem that has real stakes for the state’s economy and environment.”
UW-Stout, a member of the Universities of Wisconsin, is Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, with a focus on applied learning, collaboration with business and industry, and career outcomes. Learn more via the FOCUS2030 strategic plan.
