The Effect of Federal Wilderness on County Growth in the Intermountain Western United States

A consistent theme in the debate over federally‐owned wilderness areas in the intermountain western United States is that local economies may be adversely affected by such a designation. Yet empirical evidence of this negative effect is rarely offered. This paper finds, for a sample of 250 nonurban counties in the eight states of the intermountain west, no evidence that the existence of federal wilderness is directly or indirectly associated with either population‐density or total‐employment‐density growth between 1980 and 1990. This empirical finding is based on a disequilibrium model of population and employment growth. Furthermore, much of the economic concern over wilderness designation centers on its perceived effect on resource‐based industries. Yet, this study finds no empirical evidence that county‐level resource‐based employment is adversely affected by the existence of federal wilderness.