Individual Recreation Use & value as a function of Stream features Prepared by: Juan Marcos González & John B. Loomis Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics Colorado State University

Travel Cost Model (TCM) Recreation Demand Model Takes advantage of the fact that each individual visit to a recreation site involves an implicit transaction of travel cost. People choose the number of visits during a season. Individual site use is estimated.

Travel Cost Model (TCM) The individual demand for seasonal visits to the sites considered is defined as: rij is the number trips taken in a season by individual i to site j pj is the cost associated to site j vj is a vector of characteristics site j has mi stands for the income zi represent a set of particular individual characteristics of the visitor

Final Recreation Model Recreation Variables Final Recreation Model Biology & Recreation Model Hydrology & Recreation Model Final Full Model

Hypothesis Tests Overall Hypothesis Are commonly measured hydrologic variables statistically significant (e.g. cfs) in recreation demand model? Are additional site specific field measurement hydrological variables statistically significant in a recreation demand model? Do these additional hydrologic variables add explanatory power?

Study Area

Data Collection Location Sites In person interviews El Yunque, Caribbean National Forest. Eastern part of the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Region. Sites Visitors from 11 sites were surveyed. Espiritu Santo Mameyes In person interviews Interviews were done by UPR students during summer 2005. Included weekdays, weekends and holydays. Questions included visitor demographics, number of visits and perceived site conditions.

Results Recreation Variables Recreation Only travel cost -0.0423 ***   travel cost -0.0423 *** road 0.3852 waterfall 0.9483 streamflow_day 0.0217 picnic_tables -0.7208 small_pool -0.1588 ** medium_pools 0.4298 trash_cans 0.0936 * formal_trails -1.2471 restaurants 1.4426 constant -22.0139 Log Likelihood -1491.8412 Pseudo R2 (adjusted) 0.2001

Results Hydrology & Recreation Variables Rec+Hydrology   travel cost -0.0458 *** road 0.1969 waterfall 1.0131 streamflow_day 0.0222 picnic_tables -0.7526 small_pool -0.2015 medium_pools 0.4598 trash_cans 0.0903 * formal_trails -1.2193 Restaurants 1.3963 Constant -23.5634 mean_annual_discharge -0.2259 n.s avg_unit_stream_power -0.0013 geopotential_energy_flux 0.0000 dist_pool_to bridge -0.0033 bedrock_percent 0.0180 n.s  chi2( 4) = 2.28 Log Likelihood -1490.1512 Pseudo R2 (adjusted) 0.1978

Conclusions Std Hydrological Variables such as stream flow, pool size, waterfall have a statistically significant effect on recreation use. With these variables included, bedrock, mean annual discharge, average unit stream power are not statistically significant. These additional hydrologic variables did not add any explanatory power beyond the Std Hydrological Variables

Questions