Valuation of Agriculture’s Multi-site Environmental Impacts: An Application to Pheasant Hunting

Pheasant hunting benefits of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) were approximately $80 million/yertr in 1991 in states where the CRP appears most critical to pheasant populations. To obtain this benefit measure, tire demand for pheasant hunting was estimated using a recently developed multi-site demand model, a national survey on recreation, and environmental data processed through a geographic information system (GIS). Thus not only is the resrrking evaluation of the CRP’S environmental impacts more accurately assessed than through the use of the generalized, supply-demand equilibrium models of previous work, but, more importantly, the environmental benefits of program acreage can he compared across field locations allowing subtle changes in policy to be assessed and the design and operation of a program to be optimized. Populations of birds indigenous to the natural grassland ecosystems of the north-central U.S. suf-fered with the introduction of agriculture while the ring-necked pheasant, introduced from Asia and Asia Minor, benefited with the agriculture’s earl