Estimating Recreation Trip Related Benefits for the Klamath River Basin with TCM and Contingent Use Data By

Several northern California coastal rivers provide a wide array of nonmarket recreation activities benefits. California's lower Klamath River provides recreationists with an ensemble of activities including swimming, wading, canoeing, whitewater rafting, and angling. In the early 1900's, the Klamath was widely regarded as one of the nation's finest salmonid fishing streams. In this paper we estimate the nonmarket recreational benefits provided by the lower Klamath River with the travel cost method (TCM), and compare the benefits with the costs of restoring the fishery. Klamath River anadromous fish runs have declined in size and viability during most of the post-World War II period, but the decline accelerated sharply during the 1980's and 1990's. Throughout this period, low river water quality has been a major causal factor underlying the decreases in fish stocks. In the discussion presented here, baseline TCM estimates of $3.2119081 billion per annum are combined with survey based contingent use (CU) data to estimate the benefits of improving the water quality and angling harvests of the mainstem Klamath River and its tributaries. 1