Economic Impact of Hunting Expenditures on Southern U.S

Hunting, fishing and wildlife-associated recreation expenditures have played an important role in the U.S economy and help promote conservation and environmental goals. The 2006 U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) survey reported 87.5 million people aged 16 and above participated in wildlife-associated recreation activities, spending $122.4 billion on trips and equipment. This spending is a 13 percent increase since 2001. The recently released 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation reports $145 billion in expenditures on trips and equipment, which is an 18.5 percentage increase since 2006. Periodic assessment of economic impacts associated with wildlife recreation expenditures provides a consistent perspective on forest and wildlife resource management. This research quantified economic impacts of wildlife-associated recreation expenditures for the thirteen states in the U.S South by calculating total gross output, employment, employee compensation, proprietor income, other property income, and indirect business taxes. IMPLAN models were developed for each state using the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation data to determine the indirect and induced effects of these expenditures. Data for 2006 was used since the 2011 state level data was not yet available. The analysis computed economic impacts at broad activity levels: fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching and at sub-activity levels: fresh and salt water fishing, and big game, small game, migratory bird and other small game hunting. This approach enabled comparison of the relative importance of wildlife-associated recreation to the various southern states. In particular, the comparison revealed how differences in the individual states’ economies and levels of expenditures affect the total economic impacts of wildlife-associated activities. Differences in the impacts of various recreational activities, both among activities and among states, illustrates the importance of understanding intra-regional variations in establishing wildlife programs and policies. Preliminary results indicate that the $8.4 billion spent in 2006 by recreationists for hunting in the U.S South generated direct impacts of $5.9 billion in output and 74,012 in employment. These impacts resulted in indirect impacts of $2.8 billion in output and 17,965 in employment and induced impacts of $5.9 billion in output and 51,451 in employment. The total impact due to hunting expenditures was $14.8 billion in output and 143,429 in employment. Hunting-related expenditures generated additional employee compensation of $4.3 billion, other property income of $2.5 billion, proprietor income of $624 million, and indirect business taxes of $942 million. Hunting expenditure impacts indicate a type SAM output multiplier of 2.48. This means that each dollar of direct output generated by hunter expenditures generates an additional $1.48 of output. Similarly, type SAM multipliers for employment, employee compensation, proprietor income, property income, and indirect business taxes were estimated to be 1.94, 2.27, 2.57, 3.34, and 2.05, respectively. Fishing and wildlife watching has also generated significant impacts on regional economies and complete estimates of these impacts are forth coming.