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The Valles Caldera National Preserve

This research is geographically focused on the Valles Caldera National Preserve, a unique experiment in land management. The research focuses on the economic aspects of the recreation program at the Preserve. This work is a collaborative effort with Professor Robert Berrens (University of New Mexico) and Professor Joseph Little (University of Alaska). Although the Valles Caldera is an important land management experiment, little social or economic data has been collected or analyzed. Two of the goals of the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 are financial self-sufficiency and provision of public access. To date the recreation program has been the largest source of revenue on the Preserve. Therefore it is important to understand the revenue generation potential and equity issues of the current recreation programs. To our knowledge, our studies are the only economic and social analyses of the recreation program at the Valles Caldera National Preserve. This research has provided (1) an economic and policy analysis of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, (2) an analysis of the lottery system for elk hunting permits based on stated and revealed preference data, and (3) a hedonic analysis of the market value of a Valles Caldera Elk Hunting permit.

Papers:

Little, J., R. Berrens, and P. Champ. 2005. Uncharted Territory – The Charter Forest Experiment on the Valles Caldera National Preserve: An Initial Economic and Policy Analysis. Natural Resources Journal 45(1):33-76

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