Estimating the economic value of environmental stewardship volunteer events: A cost based approach in King County, Washington

Communities and agencies are increasingly challenged to find more cost-effective strategies for natural resource conservation and management. Many organizations enlist volunteers to care for the land and particular resource systems such as forests, waterways, and shorelines. Volunteer programs incur costs, such as staffing and project materials. Environmental stewardship volunteers contribute valuable time and expertise, as well as consumable and non-consumable goods to planned maintenance and restoration events. Little is known about the value of citizen stewards’ contributions or the contributions of host organizations. Studying the economic aspects of civic environmental stewardship can contribute to a better understanding of the impacts and implications of volunteer programs. We developed a cost-based approach to account for the economics of stewardship activities per field event (rather than a per person basis). Measures included expenditures of sponsoring or host organizations, volunteer travel costs to and from events, contributed consumable and durable goods, and labor value. 

Background/Question/Methods: The purpose of this study was to develop a cost-based approach to account for all expenditures and values attributable to stewardship activities. The valuation strategy combined several traditional economic approaches to assess values provided by both volunteers and sponsoring or host organizations. Volunteer costs were associated with traveling to and from events, on-site labor, and contributed consumable and durable goods. Host costs were estimated using traveling to and from events, on-site time, consumable and durable goods provided in support of the event as well as any preparation or follow up time associated with projects. Thus economic values were calculated using the stewardship event as the unit of analysis, rather than individual volunteers. The approach allows for scaling of assessments to larger geographic areas. The methodology can facilitate cost comparison across different areas and different scales, and allow for standardized evaluations of costs before undertaking restoration efforts.

Results/Conclusions: Contributions made by volunteers and hosts are significant. Using a survey administered to volunteers and host organizations at restoration events in King County, WA we estimate the valuation of 17 sampled events to be approximately $59,000. Extrapolating to all stewardship volunteer events in King County Parks during the Spring 2011 field season, contributed values may be as high as $121,000. This value equates to about the annual salary of one full time manager or a few entry-level or semi-skilled workers, who may be unlikely to accomplish as much as a community of enthusiastic volunteers.