Previous nonmarket valuation research of the value of forested viewsheds has been inconclusive largely because the studies relied on inappropriate proxies or poor measures of forest view. This study used GIS to measure forest area visible from a house and incorporated this measure into a hedonic model of residential housing prices. The model was applied to housing sales data for a forested landscape near Nashville, Tennessee. Residents placed significant value on forest views. Increasing the forest area visible from a house by 1 ac increased housing prices by $30. These findings could be useful in evaluating viewshed protection policies as a hedge against development pressures that threaten forested landscapes and in designing market protocols for scenic view as an ecosystem service. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
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