AN ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE NATIONAL CONSERVATION LANDS

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages over 35 million acres of National Monuments, National Conservation Areas (NCAs), Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas, National Scenic and Historic Trails, and National Wild and Scenic Rivers. Together, these landscapes of over 876 individual units in 13 states make up the National Conservation Lands. Millions of people visit these protected lands each year to recreate, learn, and conduct scientific research on the important natural resources they protect. Unlike extractive BLM programs, the economic effects of the National Conservation Lands are often less understood and may not be captured through market activity. Many benefits, ranging from recreational use values and regional tourism growth to habitat protection services and human health, exist but have not been studied at a program-wide scale for the BLM.

This project utilized economic models and theory to provide quantitative statistics regarding the economic contributions and value of the BLM’s National Conservation Lands. Using IMPLAN input-output economic modeling software, visitation data, and estimated visitor expenditure patterns, the model found that the 8.6 million visitors to National Monuments and NCAs in 2016 spent an estimated $460 million in nearby communities, supporting 7,100 jobs and over $630 million output in states’ economies. Additional analysis was done to demonstrate how nonmarket values associated with the resources protected by these lands may be measured. Among the findings are $29.8 million in annual recreational use value for the Deschutes Wild and Scenic River in Oregon, and between $1.6 and $2.9 million per year in non-use value for habitat protection in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona. These results play an important role in communicating across different resource users and help inform decisions on maintaining protected public lands.