Colorado: The Economic Contributions of Hunting, Fishing, and Wildlife-Watching on BLM Lands

Hunting, angling, and wildlife-watching are long-standing traditions in the United States, with public lands and waters providing some of the best places to enjoy these activities. Among these shared landscapes, the 246 million acres the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees across 11 Western states and Alaska attract millions of visitors annually. In 2016, visits to these states resulted in 3.1 million hunting trips, 2.8 million fishing trips, and 2.2 million trips to view wildlife, generating more than $1 billion in salaries and wages, supporting 26,500 jobs, and producing over $421 million in federal, state, and local tax revenue. The total economic output, or value of all sales associated with these three types of recreational activities on BLM lands, was more than $3 billion.