Can Self-sustaining Funding Model Work for Wisconsin State Parks?

View on Door County Pulse website

Date

April 21, 2017

News Type

Media Highlight

Source

Door County Pulse

"But demand-based pricing can be dangerous, warns Margaret Walls, research director and Senior Fellow with the environmental policy research group Resources for the Future. '[Park managers] need a good understanding of the demand curves at individual parks and how much they can raise prices for particular services at particular times of the year without significantly reducing park use,' wrote Walls in her 2013 report Paying for the State Parks." "Walls said there are drawbacks to public-private partnerships. 'Private companies want to earn a profit and there are things that have value to Wisconsin citizens that may not be profitable,' said Walls, naming a hike in the woods and scenic views as those capitalism-resistant activities."

Topics

Protected Lands and Outdoor Recreation

Related People

Margaret A. Walls

Senior Fellow

Margaret Walls is a senior fellow at RFF. Her current research focuses on issues related to resilience and adaptation to extreme events, ecosystem services, and conservation, parks and public lands.

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