Journal article

Market and nonmarket valuation of North Carolina's tundra swans among hunters, wildlife watchers, and the public

KN Frew, MN Peterson, E Sills, CE Moorman, H Bondell, JC Fuller, DL Howell

Wildlife Society Bulletin | WILEY | Published : 2018

Abstract

Wildlife-related tourism represents an important and growing economic sector for many rural communities and may be inadequately considered during regional planning. Providing robust estimates of wildlife values can help address this challenge. We used both market and nonmarket valuation methods to estimate the value of tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus) in North Carolina, USA, and compared tundra swan values among hunters, wildlife watchers, and general public. Wildlife watchers reported the greatest willingness-to-pay (US$35.2/wildlife watcher/yr), followed by hunters (US$30.53/hunter/yr), and residents (US$16.27/resident/yr). We used the Impact Analysis for Planning system softw..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission through the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. We thank anonymous reviewers and our Associate Editor S. Grado for constructive criticism and many detailed editing suggestions. We thank P. Campbell at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and D. Stewart at Pea Island NWR for allowing us to conduct surveys at both refuges. We also thank J. Dalrymple for her help and for sharing her SAS code with us. We appreciate those that helped us implement the surveys, including K. McCargo, A. Hunter, B. Kautz, C. Decker, K. Lewey, R. Nishida, R. Hunnicutt, R. Sears, C. Burke, R. Valdez, M. Drake, A. Fish, Z. Swarm, D. Vaughn, and M. McNair.