The Effect of Federal Wilderness on County Growth in the Intermountain Western United States

A consistent theme in the debate over federally-owned wilderness areas in the intermountain western United States is that local economies may be adversely affected by such a designation. Yet empirical evidence of this negative effect is rarely offered. This paper finds, for a sample of 250 nonurban counties in the eight states of the intermountain west, no evidence that the existence of federal wilderness is directly or indirectly associated with either population-density or total-employment-density growth between 1980 and 1990. This empirical finding is based on a disequilibrium model of population and employment growth. Furthermore, much of the economic concern over wilderness designation centers on its perceived effect on resource-based industries. Yet, this study finds no empirical evidence that county-level resource-based employment is adversely affected by the existence of federal wilderness.