Angler Use, Spending, and Economic Values of Urban Fisheries in Southwest Idaho

摘要

Urban fisheries are important components of a state's fish management program because they provide opportunities for people to fish where they live. Southwest Idaho has a dozen ponds and a 38-km reach of the Boise River that function as urban fisheries. Using results from an economic mail survey conducted in 2003 we sought to evaluate southwest Idaho's urban fisheries relative to nonurban fisheries in the state. The objectives of this study were to 1) review the fisheries management of southwest Idaho's urban fisheries to identify opportunities for improvement, 2) to determine how high the angler use, angler pressure, and economic values of urban fisheries are, 3) to compare angler use, pressure and economic value of urban fisheries to nonurban waters in southwest Idaho and selected Idaho fisheries, and 4) to learn what components of trip cost make urban fishing trips less expensive to anglers relative to nonurban fishing trips. We estimated 82,387 angler trips to urban fisheries in southwest Idahowith the urban section of the Boise River providing 64% of the urban fishing effort. The urban ponds supported tremendous angling pressure (1,222 trips/ha) with a value from direct spending of U.S. 16,694 dollar/ha. Average trip cost for anglers fishingthe Boise River was 46 dollar, which was higher than average trip cost for anglers fishing urban ponds (21 dollar). Trip costs to nonurban fisheries ranged from 72 dollar to 295 dollar. Urban pond anglers spent significantly less in all categories except other equipment purchased before the trip. This study confirms that urban fisheries provide affordable recreation experiences especially relative to nonurban fisheries.