A travel cost analysis of nonconsumptive wildlife-associated recreation in the United States

Abstract

Increased emphasis on sustainable resource management in forestry has effectuated a demand for various nontimber values. Nonconsumptive wildlife recreation is an important nontimber service produced on forest and rangeland. Travel cost models and data from the 1991 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation are used to estimate the demand and value for nonconsumptive wildlife-associated recreation in the United States. Resulting welfare measures are shown to be sensitive to assumptions about the cost of travel time, pecuniary costs, and functional form. Consumer surplus estimates range from 18.7 to 327.5 dollars per trip, while aggregate estimates of consumer surplus resulting from access to nonconsumptive wildlife recreation range from 5.8 to 66.4 billion dollars annually. Availability of information about nonparticipants allows comparison of truncated and untruncated demand models. Contrary to previous findings, consumer surplus estimates from truncated models are smaller than for untruncated counterparts. Trip demand is found to be adversely affected by per capita decreases in forest and rangeland. Models include interaction variables to avoid forcing hunting or fishing as potential substitutes for the large number of people who do not hunt or fish. Hunting and nonconsumptive wildlife recreation are complementary activities, while the results for fishing are mixed.