Essays on recreational demand for trout fishing on the lower Mountain Fork River and municipal water conservation

cope and Method of Study: City of Stillwater homeowner preferences were analyzed using best-worst methodology or maximum difference scaling. Recreational Demand for Trout fishing on the Lower Mountain Fork River was estimated using Conjoint Analysis and the Travel Cost model.;Findings and Conclusions: Results from Essay 1 indicate that Stillwater homeowners are likely to adopt voluntary water restrictions although they were not presented as most effective. Household consumers were less likely to adopt methods such as increasing block rates that imposed higher costs on households. The results between the consumer's statement of his or her own household's preferences were significantly different from the results when reporting preferences believed to be of the "average" household, suggesting that preference surveys do suffer from social desirability bias. Results from Essay II show that there is no significant consensus to change existing regulations at the Lower Mountain Fork River trout fishery. Furthermore, management preferences greatly depend on whether and angler primarily visits the red zone, the blue zone, or both zones equally. The heterogeneous nature of anglers illustrates that on average anglers are able to self select to a site that meets their fishing preferences. Results of Essay III estimate a mean willingness to pay for anglers at the Lower Mountain Fork River to be...