Importance of Including Use and Passive Use Values of River and Lake Restoration

Abstract

The restoration of rivers and related riparian areas is now a billion dollar a year business, with at least $15 billion spent since 1990 (Bernhardt et al. 2005). This restoration is taking place coast to coast, from the Penobscot River in Maine to the Elwha River in Washington. Restoration brings hope and optimism to conservationists that some of the past injuries that have arisen from our overzealous development of rivers can be at least partially rectified.But as river restoration grows into a billion dollar a year effort, certainly there will be individuals that will ask whether the benefits of such efforts are worth the costs. Not every restoration effort such as the Everglades will have the President of the United States’ brother to advocate for it. Some proposed large-scale restoration efforts such as the lower Snake River dam removals have yet to be approved, in part because of the perception by politically powerful interests that the costs outweigh the benefits. This paper will show that this perception is in part due to omission of important passive use values of river and salmon restoration such as existence values. These non-use or passive use values of river restoration are critical to include when dealing with restoration of riverine habitat for threatened and endangered (TE the current and near future populations are just too low. The near term value to society lies elsewhere, in the passive use value component of total economic value.