A Summary of the
Economic Impact of the Ichetucknee River System
by Lucinda Faulkner Merritt
| AMONG THE MANY roles that we can attribute to the Ichetucknee River System, one of the most important is that it serves as an economic engine for Columbia County and surrounding communities. People come from all over the world to dive at Blue Hole and North Florida’s other springs, and from all over Florida to float and paddle the Ichetucknee. While these visitors are in our area, they spend money on food, lodging, diving and paddling necessities and entertainment. Those expenditures have ripple effects throughout the local economy that create jobs, support local businesses, and contribute to the tax base of local governments.
it’s harder, if not impossible, to quantify the value of the Ichetucknee’s own right to exist and to thrive as a living natural system.
Lucinda Faulkner Merritt is a writer, researcher and advocate for water and the rights of nature. She is the communications coordinator for the Ichetucknee Alliance.
A recent University of Florida/IFAS Extension study, “Economic Contributions and Ecosystem Services of Springs in the Lower Suwannee and Santa Fe River Basins of North-Central Florida,” revealed that 70 percent of the annual visitors to Ichetucknee Springs State Park came from outside the local area. Total annual spending by all visitors to the park was $13,096,587; total annual spending by non-local visitors was $9,167,611. The study also showed that visitation to Ichetucknee Springs State Park was responsible for 169 full-time and part-time jobs in the area. By factoring in additional economic values, the study concluded that the total economic value of the park for the state’s fiscal year 2012-2013 was $16,330,000.
A more recent economic impact assessment of the Florida State Park System done by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Park Planning in 2017 found that Ichetucknee Springs State Park supported 633 area jobs and provided a total direct economic impact of $39,588, 533.
Differences in the two studies’ findings can probably be attributed to different study methods, different sources of data and different methods of modeling and analyzing that data—but it’s clear that the Ichetucknee contributes many millions of dollars to the local economy.
It’s important to remember, however, that some of the value of the Ichetucknee cannot be quantified in terms of dollars and cents. While economists can estimate the value of the Ichetucknee’s ecosystem services—generally defined as services to humans—it’s harder if not impossible to quantify its value to the flora and fauna that the Ichetucknee supports, or to quantify the value of the Ichetucknee’s own right to exist and to thrive as a living natural system. I would argue that it’s also impossible to quantify the Ichetucknee’s value to each person who experiences the springs and river, because each individual’s experience is different and economists have no way to assign a value to inspiration, rejuvenation and the awakening of deep emotional or even spiritual connections to Mother Earth. These qualitative values may be just as important, if not even more important, than the quantitative economic values of the Ichetucknee.