Valuing impacts of forest quality change: recreation and New York's Allegany State Park

Abstract

Allegany State Park in southwestern New York State attracts visitors from across western New York State, and neighboring states and Canada, while providing a variety of valuable ecological, social, and recreational benefits. Proposed management of forested park land has generated considerable controversy. Conflicting values regarding older growth versus mixed age forests, conflicting needs of alternative recreational activities, and the potential benefits of harvesting valuable timber underlie this controversy. There has to date been no attempt to estimate direct economic impacts of the proposed changes on the 1.2 million visitors who annually travel to the park. Using existing surveys of park users, a benefit transfer methodology is applied to value present park activities including camping, picnicking, sightseeing, fishing, and hunting. Second, an approach to estimating recreation economic impacts of alternative forest management plans including selective logging is developed.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 1997 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Booker, James F.; Patterson, Russel. 1998. Valuing impacts of forest quality change: recreation and New York''s Allegany State Park. In: Vogelsong, Hans G., comp, ed. Proceedings of the 1997 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium; 1997 April 6 - 9; Bolton Landing, NY. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-241. Radnor, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 272-275.