Marla Lindsay
Research Fellow, Family Forest Research Center
Primary Interests
Marla Lindsay is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Conservation/ USDA Forest Service’s Family Forest Research Center (FFRC). As a natural resource economist, her work involves conducting forest owner research related to current public policy topics and issues related to land use change.
As a member of the FFRC, she seeks to increase our understanding of family and other private forest owners in the context of topical policy and land use issues. Her main focus areas include exploring forest owners’ intentions and decisions related to conservation-based estate planning, specifically that related to land use change, and interdisciplinary collaboration to better understand the landscape impacts of invasive forest insect pests on privately-owned forest land. She is interested in developing a better understanding of the social and economic impacts of regional land conservation efforts, and recently has been exploring USDA Forest Inventory & Analysis data to understand forest ownership changes over time. In the past, she has assisted in the analysis of the USFS Forest Stewardship Program, conducted analyses of the USDA Forest Service’s National Woodland Owner Survey to understand forest owner decisions and intentions, and conducted primary research related to the social and economic dimensions of carbon sequestration and biomass harvesting by family forest owners.
Marla earned a B.A. from Smith College in Mathematics and an M.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics under mentorship of Dr. Nancy E. Bockstael. Before coming to UMass, Marla worked as a Senior Associate at Industrial Economics, Incorporated in Cambridge, MA for 15 years. In this capacity she conducted economic policy research for a variety of Federal and State agencies, as well as private entities; her analyses evaluated environmental management decisions, estimated ecosystem values, informed policy choices, and supported litigation efforts.