Testing whether waterfowl hunting benefits increase with greater water deliveries to wetlands

The change in waterfowl hunting benefits due to an increase in water deliveries to the levels required for biologically optimal wildlife refuge management at California's San Joaquin Valley National Wildlife Refuges are estimated with the Travel Cost Method, using both ordinary least squares and Poisson count data estimators. To test whether these increases were statistically significant, the Krinsky and Robb technique was used to find confidence intervals around the consumer surplus point estimates. The increases in consumer surplus were found to be statistically significant in 5 of the 6 refuges based on OLS regression estimates and in all 6 refuges using Poisson count data regression estimates. In addition, a comparison of the marginal value of an acre-foot of water in consumptive recreational use versus agriculture use is made, with the finding that the marginal value of water in waterfowl hunting was greater than the marginal value of water in agriculture for one of the six refuges.