Park Economics

As is all too obvious, we are stuck in a recession/depression that will be very difficult to extract ourselves from given the current desire for savage budget cuts and senseless austerity. I have previously mentioned how a program like the CCC would do wonders to improve park infrastructure and facilities, clearing the massive maintenance backlog, while also providing work and income to thousands of unemployed Americans who are otherwise sitting idle. On the heels of that comes this project by Headwaters Economics to push for more parks and protected spaces generally, arguing that they provide economic boosts to the areas surrounding them. Among the 100+ signers are three Nobel Laureates in Economics, so it's not just a bunch of third-tier hacks pushing this. While this is not the first time that this argument has been made (see this essay from 2004 about Olympic National Park and how community feelings towards it and logging protections in the surrounding forest have changed as one example), it is nice that there is now institutional, academic support for this belief. It's a long way from shaping policy but it's important to lay the groundwork first.