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Good news for Texas Parks may be on the way!


pineda

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Also, two studies were commissioned showing the economic value of state and local parks.

The study of the economic impact of state parks showed that 13 of the 28 reasons out-of-state visitors choose to visit Texas are state park experiences; that 10 million park visitors spend money in local communities, generating over $1.45 billion in economic activity annually; and that state parks visitor expenditures support over 14,000 jobs in Texas.

The study of the economic impact of local parks, released this past Wednesday, Jan 31, shows that the incremental net fiscal revenue to state government from local parks

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Do you know what study they're citing here? The "13 out of 28" figure doesn't really make sense to me.

Maybe the survey options were things like, "Hiking, Camping, Shopping, Museums, Nature..." So, three of those four could be seen as park experiences.

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Maybe the survey options were things like, "Hiking, Camping, Shopping, Museums, Nature..." So, three of those four could be seen as park experiences.

Yeah, but the loose application of words associated with items that are provided by some state parks don't necessarily translate into a lot of visitors. For instance, words like "birds, hunting, fishing, outdoors, wildflowers, historical places, etc." may each be applicable to some of the sites in the state park system, but that doesn't mean that the people that responded with those words are the least bit likely to go to a state park to pursue these interests.

The statement would seem misleading. Still, I'd rather see the actual study before passing final judgement. I tend not to trust politically-motivated groups at face value; they're about as good as the Chronicle at restating something meaningful from a formal scientific or economic study.

Btw, I'm not at all against having plenty of state parks. I utilize them frequently. Was at Garner SP just last weekend, in fact, and found myself wishing that they'd do more to clean up trash before it gets into the Frio River as well as perhaps updating their cabins. They're reasonably cute from the outside, but are cold and institutional on the inside. ...and the dated furniture just looks "angry". Still, I'm curious about the validity of this study that has been referenced.

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Yep, this is it. Thanks.

It is of particular interest to me because I filled out one of the surveys that they used in this study, while staying at Village Creek SP in the Big Thicket area a while back.

Unfortunately, though, the quality of the study seems to be in question. Their analysis is very clean and easy enough to understand, but it appears to produce some really odd and entirely unreasonable numerical results in places, for instance, with the estimate that the Lyndon B. Johnson SHS creates 734.6 jobs. It also comes to some really oddball conclusions, for instance by stating the following, emphasis added within the study:

In short, TPWD is central to Texas
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