John W. Duffield

Cost–Benefit Analyses of Mitigation Measures Aimed at Reducing Collisions with Large Ungulates in the United States and Canada: a Decision Support Tool

Wildlife–vehicle collisions, especially with deer (Odocoileus spp.), elk (Cervus elaphus), and moose (Alces alces) are numerous and have shown an increasing trend over the last several decades in the United States and Canada. We calculated the costs associated with the average deer–, elk–, and moose–vehicle collision, including vehicle repair costs, human injuries and fatalities, towing, accident attendance and investigation, monetary value to hunters of the animal killed in the collision, and cost of disposal of the animal carcass. In addition, we reviewed the effectiveness and costs of 13 mitigation measures considered effective in reducing collisions with large ungulates. We conducted cost–benefit analyses over a 75-year period using discount rates of 1%, 3%, and 7% to identify the threshold values (in 2007 U.S. dollars) above which individual mitigation measures start generating benefits in excess of costs. These threshold values were translated into the number of deer–, elk–, or moose–vehicle collisions that need to occur per kilometer per year for a mitigation measure to start generating economic benefits in excess of costs. In addition, we calculated the costs associated with large ungulate–vehicle collisions on 10 road sections throughout the United States and Canada and compared these to the threshold values. Finally, we conducted a more detailed cost analysis for one of these road sections to illustrate that even though the average costs for large ungulate–vehicle collisions per kilometer per year may not meet the thresholds of many of the mitigation measures, specific locations on a road section can still exceed thresholds. We believe the cost–benefit model presented in this paper can be a valuable decision support tool for determining mitigation measures to reduce ungulate–vehicle collisions. Key words: animal–vehicle collisions; cost–benefit analysis; deer; economic; effectiveness; elk; human injuries and fatalities; mitigation measures; moose; roadkill; ungulate; vehicle repair cost; wildlife–vehicle collision

Recreation benefits of instream flow: Application to Montana's Big Hole and Bitterroot Rivers

Allocation of water between instream uses such as recreation and consumptive uses such as irrigation is an important public policy issue in the western United States. One basis for identifying appropriate levels of instream flows is maximization of net economic benefits. A general framework for estimating the recreational value of instream flows was developed and applied to Montanas Big Hole and Bitterroot rivers. The paper also provides a synthesis of methods for interpreting covariate effects in dichotomous choice contingent valuation models. Precision of the estimates is examined through a simulation approach. The marginal recreational value of instream flow in these rivers is in the range of

Testing Part‐Whole Valuation Effects in Contingent Valuation of Instream Flow Protection

50 per acre foot (1 acre foot equals 1233.5 m3) for recreation at low-flow levels plus

Comment on Cameron's censored logistic regression model for referendum data

25 per acre foot for downstream hydroelectric generation. These values indicate that at some flow levels, gains may be achieved on the study rivers by reallocating water from consumptive to instream uses.

Effects of wildfire on national park visitation and the regional economy: a natural experiment in the Northern Rockies

A review of studies of part-whole valuation effects in contingent valuation highlights the difficulty of distinguishing part-whole bias from the effect of substitution among goods. A contingent valuation of instream flow preservation indicates that respondents with more information about substitutes were more sensitive in their valuations to the number of rivers protected than were respondents with less information. These results, in combination with those of other studies of part-whole valuation effects, suggest that contingent valuation researchers must design guidelines for deciding what information about substitutes should be presented to respondents and how that information should be presented.

Modeling the behavior of marlin anglers in the Western Pacific.

Abstract T. A. Cameron (A new paradigm for valuing non-market goods using referendum data: Maximum likelihood estimation by censored logistic regression, J. Environ. Econom. Management 15, 355–379 (1988)) presents what she terms a new paradigm for interpreting referendum data derived from contingent valuation surveys for nonmarket resources. We show that since her model is a reparameterization of the usual logistic regression model, asymptotic standard errors can be derived for the maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters in either model from the other. We also argue that computational convenience in deriving demand relationships or elasticities depends more on the choice of welfare measure than on the choice of a parameterization.

Convergent validity between willingness to pay elicitation methods: an application to Grand Canyon whitewater boaters

Federal wildland fire management policy in the United States directs the use of value-based methods to guide priorities. However, the economic literature on the effect of wildland fire on nonmarket uses, such as recreation, is limited. This paper introduces a new approach to measuring the effect of wildfire on recreational use by utilising newly available long-term datasets on the location and size of wildland fire in the United States and observed behaviour over time as revealed through comprehensive National Park Service (NPS) visitor data. We estimate travel cost economic demand models that can be aggregated at the site-landscape level for Yellowstone National Park (YNP). The marginal recreation benefit per acre of fire avoided in, or proximate to, the park is US

Testing the Limits of Temporal Stability: Willingness to Pay Values among Grand Canyon Whitewater Boaters Across Decades

43.82 per acre (US

Modeling the influence of water levels on recreational use at lakes Mead and Powell

108.29 per hectare) and the net present value loss for the 1986-2011 period is estimated to be US

Inference and Optimal Design for a Welfare Measure in Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation

206 million. We also estimate marginal regional economic impacts at US