Comparing Estimates of Market and Nonmarket Values for Products of a Given Land Base

Excerpts from the report: The purpose is to generate comparable values of a land resource used in two potentially conflicting production activities—cattle ranching and hunting. Since the transformation function for the two products from the given resource remains unsolved, the purpose of the paper is not to prescribe the optimum combination of products to produce, but rather to describe the values of the two activities in an "as is" situation to the consumers of the activities. Such information should prove useful to policymakers in terms of specifying the magnitude of the potential conflict among users of the land resource. Arizona is the land base under study. The question of comparable values for cattle ranching and rural outdoor recreation on a given land base is of particular interest in Arizona where so much of the state is under public ownership and is to be managed for the public good. Only 17.6 percent of Arizona lands are in private ownership. Federal and state agencies which have a management interest in the public lands include the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Arizona State Land Department and the Arizona Department of Game and Fish. Of major interest in each of these agencies is the level at which cattle grazing should be allowed, the level at which game species should be encouraged, and the access that should be allowed to the public for hunting and other recreational activities.