Let’s Get Businesslike With Federal Lands

[SAJ-99]

Can you provide a link? Because like I said, I've never seen a study that attempted to quantify in dollars and cents the value of a public land user day.

There have been plenty of attempts to describe that value qualitatively, which is probably the better metric anyway, but I've never read anything about applying monetary value to those trips. You could argue that you shouldn't ever try to put a dollar amount on a spring hike in the wildflowers, or catching a cutthroat in a crystal clear alpine tarn, or scrambling to the top of a peak. But when the opposition speaks no other language, and wields all the power, then by god we'd better learn how to speak their language.

Here is the Google AI total...
According to recent USDA Forest Service data, the estimated annual number of visitor days on National Forest Service land is around 168 million visits, with a 90% confidence interval ranging from 164.5 million to 172 million visits.

You ask a good question that is hard to answer. Placing a value is hard when money is not exchanged. What value can you equivocate to those days in the outdoors? For some, the outdoors is a religious experience. For others, it is the equivalent to a visit to the psychologist. There is certainly value. The probably may also be that those who substitute the outdoors for other activities, like a Mariners game, don't have the money for the game.