The economic value of a National Park

After listening to a presentation on keeping the Flathead Valley wild by Casey Brennan from Wildsight, I thought it might be interesting to look at the economic value of a national park.  So much of our lives are now driven by the market economy and therefore adding this perspective to a park may be one of the best ways to convince the government of it's true value.

The Flathead is the one missing piece to the Waterton and Glacier National Parks puzzle.  The missing top left corner as it stands right now is still mainly wild but has no legal protection to keep it this way.  The Flathead is the last low elevation valley in the southern part of Canada.  It is unique because of its diversity of plants, ungulates, carnivores and even rocks.  The water quality in this value is unmatched and it is used as a benchmark for studies around the world.  Even with all these valuable qualities the current BC government is unable to see the need to protect it.

The current government has ran on a platform of "open for business" and has effectively began selling off any resource they can get their hands on.  These resources come from our forests, mountains, rivers and oceans.  The government insists on placing a price tag on every tree and will sell to the first bidder regardless the consequence.  This disregard for the environment comes with a mindset that there will always be another river in another valley.

Local residents with support from the federal and international governments are pushing to create a National Park in this region to finally protect it for the long run.  They realize that we are quickly running out of these special places and if we do not act now it will soon be to late.  Because our provincial government is so dollar driven, I think our best chance at saving this value is by giving it a price tag.

The government see's value in the lumber, the coal, the methane and the water.  What we need to do is show them the value in the view, the piece and quite, the serenity and the sanctuary that this valley provides.  If we are able to show these abstract ideas as economic drivers, we can justify the value in protecting this valley.  Studies like this have been done and with the creation of a National Park it has been estimated that there would be 1.4 million dollars contributed to the GDP.  Is this not enough to justify a park?