How much is a walk through a state park worth to you?

May 13, 2008

To me? Very little. I’m not a big fan of nature. There are bugs and dirt. Sometimes sand. It’s just hot and itchy — two things I can do without.

Fortunately for national and state park services, there are plenty of people out there who think I’m a nitwit and just love the thought of spending a sunny day hiking through a forest. University of Maryland researchers from the school’s Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology have released a study to try to quantify — among other things — the value of a day spent among the trees and woodland creatures.

“The study also sought to measure the recreational value of state forests, partly by asking people how much they spent on trips to the woods… The researchers concluded that people derived individual satisfaction worth $96 per trip for day users, and $400 for the average overnighter.”

I would pay 10 times that for a human-sized hamster ball I could climb into and take for a spin through a park. So how much is a day in a park worth to you?

JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist

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Posted by The Daily Record | Filed Under business, environment, university of maryland 

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