We are pioneering new methods to measure the community benefits and impacts of recreation on public lands. Our report, Amenity Trap: How High-amenity Communities Can Avoid Being Loved to Death, analyzes four major challenges and the ways they uniquely affect amenity communities: housing, infrastructure, fiscal policy, and natural disasters. The report includes solutions and strategies underway in communities across the country that help them navigate a growing outdoor recreation economy while protecting the needs of residents and the natural amenities they depend on. Our Rural Capacity Map shows where resources can be directed constructively to underserved and largely rural parts of our country.
Partners involved in this project include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), University of Washington, Evergreen State College, University of Arizona, Louisiana State University, and The Association of State Floodplain Managers.
Our Amenity Trap Report recognizes that tourism is a double-edged sword that brings jobs and opportunity, but also problems of unaffordability and insufficient revenue needed to support the impacts of tourism in rural communities. It’s encouraging to see federal agencies and community leaders use our Rural Capacity Map to prioritize resources, build capacity, improve conservation outcomes, and invest in infrastructure and climate resilience.
Patty Hernandez, Executive Director
Headwaters Economics