Missouri’s Design for Conservation has allowed the Missouri Department of Conservation to open twelve Conservation Nature and Interpretive Centers, many in urban areas. There Missourians can begin to learn about the outdoors and, perhaps, start a lifetime of hunting or fishing.
The managers of those areas need to know how many visitors come, what they do, and, in tight budget times, what economic value they receive.
Over the last several years, we have worked to develop quick, standardized methods for visitor surveys. Results so far range from about 80,000 visits per year at Burr Oak Woods Nature Center to over 300,000 at Branson’s Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery, including 139,000 first-time visitors.
Staff and volunteers collected information on what visitors did, where they came from and how they rated their visit.
We estimate the economic value of the Nature and Interpretive Centers to the visitors, with results as high as $2 million per year at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center.
