Allocation of water between instream uses such as recreation and consumptive uses such as irrigation is an important public policy issue in the western United States. One basis for identifying appropriate levels of instream flows is maximization of net economic benefits. A general framework for estimating the recreational value of instream flows was developed and applied to Montana's Big Hole and Bitterroot rivers. The paper also provides a synthesis of methods for interpreting covariate effects in dichotomous choice contingent valuation models. Precision of the estimates isexamined through a simulation approach. The marginal recreational value of instream flow in these rivers is in the range of $50 per acre foot (1 acre foot equals 1233.5 m 3) for recreation at low-flow levels plus $25 per acre foot for downstream hydroelectric generation. These values indicate that at some flow levels, gains may be achieved on the study rivers by reallocating water from consumptive to instream uses. sured the participation effect described by the first term in (2), while applications by Walsh et al. [1980], Daubert and Young [1981], and Boyle et al. [1988] correspond to the concurrent effects of instream flow on the quality of the recreational experience (second term in equation (2)). Johnson and Adams' [1988] model is an example of a model examining lagged effects, corresponding to the third term in(2). It is possible that only one or two of the three terms may be empirically significant for a given resource. However, it is also possible that all three effects may be important. To the extent that the signs on the partial derivatives are positive in the streamflow range of interest, an implication of this framework is that previous estimates of recreational instream flow values may be conservative.

The National Park Service (NPS) currently manages a large and diverse system of park units nationwide which received an estimated 279 million recreational visits in 2011. This article uses park visitor data collected by the NPS Visitor Services Project to estimate a consistent set of count data travel cost models of park visitor willingness to pay (WTP). Models were estimated using 58 different park unit survey datasets. WTP estimates for these 58 park surveys were used within a meta-regression analysis model to predict average and total WTP for NPS recreational visitation system-wide. Estimated WTP per NPS visit in 2011 averaged $102 system-wide, and ranged across park units from $67 to $288. Total 2011 visitor WTP for the NPS system is estimated at $28.5 billion with a 95% confidence interval of $19.7-$43.1 billion. The estimation of a meta-regression model using consistently collected data and identical specification of visitor WTP models greatly reduces problems common to meta-regression models, including sample selection bias, primary data heterogeneity, and heteroskedasticity, as well as some aspects of panel effects. The article provides the first estimate of total annual NPS visitor WTP within the literature directly based on NPS visitor survey data.

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Glen Canyon Dam (GCD) on the Colorado River in northern Arizona provides water storage, flood control, and power system benefits to approximately 40 million people who rely on water and energy resources in the Colorado River basin. Downstream resources (e.g., angling, whitewater floating) in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA) and Grand Canyon National Park are impacted by the operation of GCD. The GCD Adaptive Management Program was established in 1997 to monitor and research the effects of dam operations on the downstream environment. We utilized secondary survey data and an individual observation travel cost model to estimate the net economic benefit of angling in GCNRA for each season and each type of angler. As expected, the demand for angling decreased with increasing travel cost; the annual value of angling at Lees Ferry totaled US$2.7 million at 2014 visitation levels. Demand for angling was also affected by season, with per‐trip values of $210 in the summer, $237 in the spring, $261 in the fall, and $399 in the winter. This information provides insight into the ways in which anglers are potentially impacted by seasonal GCD operations and adaptive management experiments aimed at improving downstream resource conditions.Received October 7, 2015; accepted June 13, 2016 Published online September 30, 2016