The dissertation is composed of three papers. The first paper explored the history of public investment in natural resource conservation in California. First, the paper focused on the history of state trust lands and cost-share programs, and then discussed the costs and benefits of state issued bonds for natural resource protection. Finally, the paper highlighted new opportunities for funding through tax and fee mechanisms. The paper evaluated these public investment tools and discussed the future of natural resource conservation funding in California.

The second paper is based on a study conducted to understand how a sales tax affected consumers and producers in California’s lumber market. Tax incidence theory was used to analyze the effect of the tax policy on prices and social welfare. The study analyzed the effect of the lumber tax using a theoretical lumber market model. A partial equilibrium model was used to examine the burden of the tax, ignoring the effects on other markets. This framework determined if the burden of the tax was primarily borne by consumers or producers. The study found that the tax burden fell on the consumers, given the inelastic nature of the lumber market.

The final paper explored examples of privatization of public land management as well as the recent trend of private investments in natural resource conservation. A case study was examined for managing state parks by private interests highlighting the funding crisis with California’s state parks. The paper also investigated the increase in private investment in conservation over the last few years, focused on mitigation banks, innovative private finance, and environmental impact bonds. The goal was to provide the costs and benefits of privatization of natural resource management and conservation.