TY - JOUR T1 - Cost-effective Recovery of an Endangered Species: The Red-cockaded Woodpecker JF - Land Economics JO - Land Econ SP - 649 LP - 667 DO - 10.3368/le.90.4.649 VL - 90 IS - 4 AU - Ryan M. Finseth AU - Jon M. Conrad Y1 - 2014/11/01 UR - http://le.uwpress.org/content/90/4/649.abstract N2 - A model for the recovery of an endangered species is developed and applied to the red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis), a species once abundant in the southeastern United States. There is a finite set of recovery actions that might be implemented in each period, with the goal of reaching a population target at some future date. Dynamic programming is used to solve deterministic and stochastic versions of the model. Least-cost recovery plans are found for the deterministic problem where it is possible to attain a population target with certainty. For the stochastic problem, least-cost, adaptive actions are identified. (JEL Q24, Q28) ER -