Economic Contribution of Wildlife Management Areas to Local and State Economies

Sustaining public support for new and existing protected areas including wildlife management areas (WMA) requires demonstrating whether and how protected areas can bring economic benefit to local stakeholders. This is particularly critical in rural areas where increasing acres in WMAs may lead to reduction in tax revenue available that local governments need for provision of many public services. This study presents an approach to characterize economic contribution of WMA related expenditures by visitors and wildlife agency on county and state level economy. While the results are based on data from Tennessee WMAs, the economic multipliers presented here may be applicable to other comparable places in projecting economic impacts of WMA related activities.