http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/bie_envirosociety/rss Recent eScholarship items from Environment and Society Wed, 5 Aug 2026 23:28:57 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/92c281c3 <p>In 1994, the City of Chicago’s Department of Environment made a significant investment to improve the North Park Village Nature Center, one of the City’s few accessible natural sites located on the Chicago’s north side. A previous on-site travel-cost survey of visitors to the North Park Village Nature Center (McGrath, 2006) showed that, on average, this nature center generates significant annual consumer surplus (the recreational use value) to users of the nature center – about $1,500 per user per year, or nearly $322 per visit. These welfare estimates imply the net present value of the sites recreational value to be on the order of $100 million in 2005 dollars, or about $2.1 million per acre.</p><p>A survey that is limited to users of the center understates the benefits of the investment by neglecting to take into account the benefits enjoyed by neighbors who value the existence of the center without directly using it (the non-use value). Thus, an important question that... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/92c281c3 Wed, 2 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000 McGrath, Daniel T, PhD MCMILLEN, DANIEL P