Dr. Mark Buckley

Dr. Mark Buckley leads the natural resource practice at ECONorthwest, designing and managing economic analyses typically involving water resources and land management. Mark specializes in bringing an intuitive, strategic approach to understanding individual and group incentives to account for decision-making in policy design. He focuses on the context-specific scarcities to understand the real value of goods and services, whether they be market or non-market. The majority of his work focuses on improving efficiency of investments in watersheds and water resources, including integrated planning, restoration, conservation, and damage recovery. Mark works as part of interdisciplinary teams, typically for federal as well as state and local agencies, including USFS, USEPA, BLM, DOI, NOAA, Puget Sound Partnership, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Washington Department of Ecology. He has conducted cutting-edge research integrating restoration of ecosystem services within heavily-used areas including urban, and better understanding and designing systems to provide economic benefits from joint investments in natural and physical capital. His recent work includes leading benefit-cost analyses for bacteria TDML water quality investments in San Diego and Orange counties, designing wildfire prevention efforts to maximize benefits and identify funding opportunities in the Sierra Nevada, long-range planning for stormwater and wastewater investments that considered public and private objectives in Puget Sound, and improving outdoor recreation investments to provide economic benefits and business opportunities in Oregon. Mark serves as an expert witness on natural resource issues and has served on city advisory committees. He has published research in peer-reviewed journals and has edited books and has also served as an adjunct professor for environmental economics at Portland State University.