Having seen a lot of such estimates on money spent on "birding"
activities in various jurisdictions, I usually have a hard time
believing them anymore. I wonder what they were smoking when they came
up with $1.3 billion spent annually on birding in Washington. The most
recent census pegs the State's population at 5,987,973. Putting those
two numbers together produces an average of just over $217 spent PER
Washingtonian per year on birding. I find that hard to believe, even if
one includes bird feed, cat de-clawing, and other remotely bird related
items. And since the actual number of birders isn't even close to the
total population, the per capita spent would be even higher. Even if we
say that one in a hundred (I'm sure that is much too high)
Washingtonians is a birder, the average amount spent per birder would be
$21,710 each. One in a thousand would be $217,102 each. One in 10
persons would be $2,171 each.

Scott Ray
Yakima, WA
Mryakima at NWInfo dot net

-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Rob McNair-Huff
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 2:41 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: Re: birding economic impact in Washington

To offer a little perspective on the economic impact of wildlife
watching, including birding, in Washington, during 2001 state economists
estimate that it contributed $1.3 billion to the state economy. So,
taken
collectively, those of us wandering around the state in search of
wildlife are having a major impact on the economy, which is a great
point
to bring up the next time someone questions expenditures made by local
and state governments to accommodate wildlife viewing.


Rob McNair-Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
Author of Birding Washington (coming later this year from Falcon
Publishing)
mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com ---- http://www.whiterabbits.com



>Tweeters:
>
>Fran Drobny's note on Spencer I. reminded me that if anyone is
interested in
>birding south Texas, there was a big spread in the Sunday Seattle
Times,
>including photos of Altamira Oriole, Ferr. Pygmy-Owl, Gray Hawk and
Green
>Kingfisher. Can't remember if it was the Travel Section or Northwest,
but
>look for it on the front of one of those glossy sections in the back of
the
>paper.
>
>The article also mentions the value of birding to the local and
national
>economy, I recall that for the town of McAllen alone they said birding
>generated $39 millon in revenue annually.
>
>Scott Atkinson
>Lake Stevens
>mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com
>
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