Title: Willingness to Pay for Deer Hunting Site Attributes using Best-Worst Choice
Authors: Bijesh Mishra1, Rodney Will2, Omkar Joshi3
1. Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University 2. Professor, Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University 3. Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University
Abstract:
The forest-prairie ecotone of the south-central USA can provide excellent habitat for wildlife such as deer, and turkey but is slowly transitioning to closed-canopy forest largely due to the absence of active management such as prescribed fire. Although active management can create or maintain suitable deer habitats, it brings an additional financial burden. Therefore, income from leasing land for deer hunting can be an important source of revenue for landowners and can offset some costs of active management. We used the best worst choice model to rank landowner preferences for deer habitat characteristics such as deer sanctuary, food plots, and forest canopy cover. We further calculated the marginal difference in willingness to pay for habitat characteristics and found that deer hunters are willing to pay higher for a lease site that provides an opportunity to observe a higher number of deer. The trade-offs between opportunities to observe between 6 and 10 deer per visit, instead of 1 deer per visit, are $9 and $11 respectively. The willingness to pay for a lease site with food plots and deer sanctuary is also higher in comparison to others without them. Study results suggest that landowners may be able to maintain close to open canopy forest and grasslands meeting multiple objectives of cattle grazing to wildlife management without significantly compromising their revenue.
