How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska
When balancing environmental preservation and economic development, it is critical to evaluate how taxpayers value national park land and for what they are valuing it. One key component of this evaluation is to calculate a “passive use value,” or the willingness to pay (WTP), for protection of land...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6613930 2023-05-15T15:15:03+02:00 How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska Johnson, Lindsay Spanbauer, Michael Button, Patrick 2019 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6613930/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31286114 https://doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2019-8968 en eng http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6613930/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31286114 http://dx.doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2019-8968 Article Text 2019 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2019-8968 2020-01-05T01:26:18Z When balancing environmental preservation and economic development, it is critical to evaluate how taxpayers value national park land and for what they are valuing it. One key component of this evaluation is to calculate a “passive use value,” or the willingness to pay (WTP), for protection of land that may never directly be used, and to determine what benefits of land protection motivate this passive use value. We estimated the WTP for a 5% expansion of Denali National Park in Alaska (an expansion of 325,340 acres) using a questionnaire and the contingent valuation method. The survey first educated respondents on Alaskan geography, the current status of protected land and wildlife in Alaska, and common arguments for and against National Park expansion. The survey then described a proposal to expand the Denali National Park and asked a series of questions designed to bound the respondents WTP. Finally, the survey asked respondents to answer questions about what motivated their support or disapproval for the program. Multiple methodologies were used to estimate the national average WTP, resulting in a WTP range of a single payment of $77 to $409. This is estimated to be a total WTP of $15.1 billion to $79.3 billion for all individuals aged 18 to 64 in the United States, or $363.1 million to $1.91 billion per year in 2017 dollars. Respondents to the survey indicated that their support is driven primarily by increased protection from oil spills (85.8% deemed this very important or important), by increasing and protecting Alaska’s biodiversity (84.3%), and preserving Alaska’s beauty (84.2%). These results can help inform recent, current, and future debates about land use. President Obama significantly expanded land protections, while President Trump is continuing to scale back land protections, including opening up untouched land in Alaska in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. These results suggest that there are significant passive use values that should be considered when deciding whether to ... Text Arctic Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic The Journal of Park and Recreation Administration |
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Article Johnson, Lindsay Spanbauer, Michael Button, Patrick How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska |
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When balancing environmental preservation and economic development, it is critical to evaluate how taxpayers value national park land and for what they are valuing it. One key component of this evaluation is to calculate a “passive use value,” or the willingness to pay (WTP), for protection of land that may never directly be used, and to determine what benefits of land protection motivate this passive use value. We estimated the WTP for a 5% expansion of Denali National Park in Alaska (an expansion of 325,340 acres) using a questionnaire and the contingent valuation method. The survey first educated respondents on Alaskan geography, the current status of protected land and wildlife in Alaska, and common arguments for and against National Park expansion. The survey then described a proposal to expand the Denali National Park and asked a series of questions designed to bound the respondents WTP. Finally, the survey asked respondents to answer questions about what motivated their support or disapproval for the program. Multiple methodologies were used to estimate the national average WTP, resulting in a WTP range of a single payment of $77 to $409. This is estimated to be a total WTP of $15.1 billion to $79.3 billion for all individuals aged 18 to 64 in the United States, or $363.1 million to $1.91 billion per year in 2017 dollars. Respondents to the survey indicated that their support is driven primarily by increased protection from oil spills (85.8% deemed this very important or important), by increasing and protecting Alaska’s biodiversity (84.3%), and preserving Alaska’s beauty (84.2%). These results can help inform recent, current, and future debates about land use. President Obama significantly expanded land protections, while President Trump is continuing to scale back land protections, including opening up untouched land in Alaska in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. These results suggest that there are significant passive use values that should be considered when deciding whether to ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Johnson, Lindsay Spanbauer, Michael Button, Patrick |
author_facet |
Johnson, Lindsay Spanbauer, Michael Button, Patrick |
author_sort |
Johnson, Lindsay |
title |
How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska |
title_short |
How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska |
title_full |
How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska |
title_fullStr |
How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
How Valuable are National Parks? Evidence from a Proposed National Park Expansion in Alaska |
title_sort |
how valuable are national parks? evidence from a proposed national park expansion in alaska |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6613930/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31286114 https://doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2019-8968 |
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Arctic |
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Arctic |
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Arctic Alaska |
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Arctic Alaska |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6613930/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31286114 http://dx.doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2019-8968 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2019-8968 |
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The Journal of Park and Recreation Administration |
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