Recreational demands for maintaining instream flows: A contingent valuation approach

Abstract

Recreational uses of streams, although nonconsumptive, increasingly conflict with traditional off-stream uses of water in arid regions. Recreational demands for instream flows have collective good attributes such that the recreationists ' preferences may be inadequately reflected in water allocation decisions. The contingent valuation approach was adapted to impute instream flow shadow prices from a sample ofrecreationists on the Cache la Poudre River in northern Colorado. During periods of relatively low flows, the estimated instream flow marginal value exceeds the marginal value of water in irrigation, suggesting a need for altered water allocation policies. Key words: contingent valuation, instream flows, public good demands, water-based recreation. Rapidly growing demands for recreational ac-tivities using free-flowing streams have en-couraged public policies to preserve or en-hance instream flows. Congress approved the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and several west-ern states have adopted programs to protect or increase water allocations for recreational demands. In the arid western United States, any program to maintain instream flows is po-tentially controversial, because it usually conflicts with existing or planned diversions for irrigation, cities, or industries. Off-stream diversion or storage of water may severely reduce flows during some periods, thereby re-ducing the potential quality of recreational ex-periences. Economics has made little con-tribution to the resolution of such conflicts, and most streamflow maintenance policies have been based on physical and biological criteria. John T. Daubert is an assistant professor of agricultural econom