UC Riverside

A nonmarket valuation approach is used in this study to evaluate the recreation values of the San Jacinto Wilderness in southern California. The analysis utilizes survey data from a stated-choice experiment involving backcountry visitors who responded to questions about hypothetical wildfire burn scenarios. Benefits of landscape preservation are derived using a Kuhn-Tucker (KT) demand system. Model results suggest that recreationists are more attracted to sites with recent foreground wildfires. For example, recreational welfare estimates increased for sites that were partially affected by different types of wildfires, with the greatest gains being observed for the most recent wildfires. Welfare analysis indicates that mean individual seasonal CV losses for complete closure of particular sites range from $19 to $169.

Additionally, a latent class approach to the KT model is proposed as a method for incorporating unobserved heterogeneity in preference for recreation behavior using a utility theoretical framework and used to control for endogenous spatial sorting. Using the standard maximization likelihood technique, the latent class KT model suggests that two groups exit in the sample. The groups consist of "hiking enthusiasts" and "casual users." The hiking enthusiasts take twice as much trips as casual users, but their estimated per-trip CV is smaller. However, the results are consistent with Parsons (1991) argument; individuals with stronger preferences for recreation ("enthusiasts") might choose to live closer to recreation sites they frequently visit to reduce their travel costs.