management issues that Park staff has to address, as well as the
tradeoffs that have to be made to provide visitors with the opportunity
to participate in certain recreational activities. Future studies
should continue to expand on this type of survey-based research in
national parks.
Some limitations to this study, which can be incorporated into
similar future efforts, should be noted. First, the majority of survey
respondents were willing to pay even the highest bid amount of
$50 in the form of an increased Park entrance fee to ensure that
bears are allowed to stay along roadside habitats. Future studies
should include bid amounts greater than $50 and a larger number
of bid amounts at the upper end of the range. Further, more information
could have been presented to respondents in the
contingent behavior and contingent valuation questions to reduce
hypothetical bias. For instance, respondents could have been told
where bears would remain and how they could still be viewed if
they were no longer allowed to occupy roadside habitat, as well as
reminded of other animals they could possibly still view from their
car. In the contingent valuation question, respondents could have
been given a ‘cheap talk’ script that discusses the tendency for
people to exaggerate their willingness-to-pay, and a more detailed
explanation as to what would happen in the case of a ‘yes’ or ‘no’
response by the majority of respondents. This could include a
description of the methods that would be used to remove bears
from roadside habitat or alternatively, whether a ‘no’ response
meant they could still see bears, just in a more dangerous environment
due to the lack of appropriate staff. In addition, there are
often pros and cons to various survey sampling designs, but future
visitor surveys conducted in national parks may benefit from
surveying visitors at entrance stations, in order to weight survey
responses to represent the actual distribution of visitation across
entrances. Finally, this study captured preferences and values for
roadside bear viewing of only those individuals who visited the
Park at the time the survey was conducted. There are likely many
members of society who value the option to view bears along Park
roads in the future, or derive value from ensuring that future
generations have the option to participate in roadside bear viewing.
Household surveys can capture many of these additional economic
values.