Recreationists' willingness to pay for aquatic invasive species management

Participate in this webinar from Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center (MAISRC) research associate, Dr. Lucia Levers and senior research associate, Dr. Amit Pradhananga. They will be presenting on the willingness of recreationists to pay for aquatic invasive species management in Minnesota. The webinar is free but registration is required.

MAISRC estimates willingness to pay for local aquatic invasive species lake management in the form of a daily lake access fee by conducting summer lake surveys in Minnesota. Similar pairs of lakes with differing infestations of zebra mussels, Dreissena polymorpha, and starry stonewort, Nitellopsis obtusa, were used as study sites to infer how being at an infested lake vs. being at an uninfested lake and different local species would impact responses. We also examined recreationists’ visit motivation, and aquatic invasive species perceived risk, knowledge, and awareness of problem. We estimate mean willingness to pay to be $10.41 per day, which did not differ significantly by lake. Perceived risk, awareness of problem, and visit motivation were significant in predicting willingness to pay, which could have important ramifications for aquatic invasive species management.

Learn more about the study and watch a short video of Dr. Levers giving an overview of the project.

While staff are currently working remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they are still able to host online events and look forward to sharing their webinar with you next month.