The Colorado River Experience: Assessing The Value Of Motorized Rafting

Abstract

Although free markets provide superior solutions to resource allocation, the National Park Service controls access, use, and mode of travel on the Colorado River through the canyon. There is an aggregate number of “user days” allowed for the river. There is a split between motorized and non-motorized travel, and daily limits on the types of trips that can be launched from Lees Ferry, the starting point for Grand Canyon river trips. This paper explores a rather straightforward economic question – How much would it take to entice existing motorized providers to switch to oar powered rafts? Available data allows the development of different scenarios to determine the cost of enticing motorized providers to switch to nonmotorized guided trips. However, there is also intrinsic some providers possess which may make change a purely economic decision to one with other values.