STUDY: Hunting on Private Land Offers Potential for Increased Conservation

By Justin Stakes

USA -(AmmoLand.com)- Successfully integrating human activities with ecosystem conservation forms the foundation of sustainability and is key to maintaining biological diversity.

A new study has found that recreational use of private land in the U.S. could have significant benefits for both conservation efforts and economic return, especially when coupled with certain policy mechanisms.

The study, published Friday in the journal Land Use Policy, found that approximately 440 million acres of private land—roughly 22% of the contiguous land area of the U.S.—are either leased or owned for wildlife-associated recreation, which is defined as fishing, hunting and wildlife-watching.

Hunting was the most widespread recreational use, accounting for 81% of the total acreage (356 million acres).

Luke Macaulay, an Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist in the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, authored the study, which used eighteen national surveys over fourteen years for a comprehensive analysis. Drawing upon multiple years and multiple sources of surveys, this study provides the most detailed and precise estimates available of private land recreation in the U.S.

The study estimated that the annual spending for wildlife-associated recreation on private land …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand