National wildlife refuges more than make up for their cost to taxpayers by returning about $4 in economic activity for every $1 the government spends, according to a federal study released Tuesday.

In the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Mountain-Prairie Region, which includes Wyoming, recreational uses of national wildlife refuges generated more than $82.4 million in economic return and created 1,387 private sector jobs during fiscal year 2006, according to the report released by the agency.

There are seven national wildlife refuges in Wyoming, but the National Elk Refuge is the stellar attraction among Fish and Wildlife Service properties in the Cowboy State. The Jackson Hole and Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center, a joint effort of the refuge and the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, had 280,000 visitors in 2006 and could crack the 300,000 mark in 2007, said Tim O'Donoghue, executive director of the chamber.

The visitor center records regional visitation, which includes the refuge, Jackson and Grand Teton National Park.

The only organized "visits" to the National Elk Refuge are through sleigh rides that operate from mid-December to mid-March/mid-April, depending on the suitability of the resource to withstand the traffic. Due to drought conditions, sleigh ride visitation at the refuge was about 18,000 in 2006 - down significantly from a previous average of 24,000 per year, according to refuge records.

O'Donoghue said people don't just come to Jackson for the skiing in the winter. "They like to do other things," he said, "and visiting the National Elk Refuge and going for a sleigh ride is a big attraction."

In a recent environmental impact statement for the refuge, survey results show that on average nonlocal Wyoming resident and out-of-state visitors spent about $83 per person per day locally in the Jackson Hole area.

Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall, in a telephone conference call with journalists, said refuges provide both tangible and intangible benefits to local and regional economies - everything from jobs and income, to quality of life.

Asked if he'd considered the consequences to the local economy if wildlife diseases such as chronic wasting disease hit the National Elk Refuge, Hall acknowledged concern about that prospect, but endorsed the current plan, which calls for a phased reduction of the elk herd to 5,000 and the bison to 500.

O'Donoghue said the Jackson business community is very much aware of what could happen if chronic wasting ever hit the refuge - a massive die-off of animals - and debates "ad nauseam" the merits of continuing versus stopping the artificial feeding of elk at the refuge. Research has shown that feeding concentrates the animals and makes disease transmission more likely.

"We have a real stalemate between the science and the politics," he said. Advocates of phasing out the refuge feedground are countered by those who warn of winter die-offs due to starvation or elk raiding ranchers' haystacks. "We're danged if we do (phase out feeding), and we're danged if we don't," he said.

National impact

The report, titled "Banking on Nature 2006: The Economic Benefits to Local Communities of National Wildlife Refuge Visitation," showed that nationally, recreational uses on national wildlife refuges in the same year generated almost $1.7 billion in total economic activity.

While the "Banking on Nature" report didn't address any of the Wyoming refuges, the report, compiled by Fish and Wildlife Service economists, said nearly 35 million people nationwide visited national wildlife refuges in 2006, supporting almost 27,000 private sector jobs and producing about $543 million in employment income. The national economic benefit is almost four times the $383 million appropriated to the National Wildlife Refuge System in fiscal year 2006. In addition, recreational spending on national wildlife refuges nationwide generated nearly $185.3 million in tax revenue at the local, county, state and federal level.

In the Mountain-Prairie Region, national wildlife refuges created $26 million in job income and welcomed more than 2.1 million visitors in 2006. The region includes national wildlife refuges in Colorado, Utah, Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Advocates of the system pounced on the results as evidence that budget cuts under President Bush have been ill-advised.

"Refuges are economic engines in local communities. There's no doubt about it," said Desiree Sorenson-Groves, vice president for government affairs at the National Wildlife Refuge Association. "The budget cuts have an impact …. You have people who are going to refuges and there's no staff, or a wildlife drive is closed because it can't be maintained."

Under an ongoing restructuring, the Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to cut 565 jobs from refuges by 2009 - a 20 percent reduction. The plan would leave more than 200 refuges unstaffed.

The national system encompasses 548 refuges and more than 96 million acres in all 50 states.

The refuge budget grew rapidly after Congress passed a landmark improvement bill in 1997. With new land acquisitions and a clearer mandate, the system's funding jumped from $178 million in 1997 to $391 million in 2004.

Recent years have seen stagnant or declining budgets, even as refuge officials say they need $15 million increases just to keep pace with inflation, and a much larger amount to chip away at an estimated $2.5 billion backlog for maintenance and operations.

Hall said the budget challenges are "fairly significant" and that "we'd be naive to think that we wouldn't lose some visitation" as a result of eliminating staff and restricting access in some areas.

He said the agency would do its best to explain to decision-makers "that we get a tremendous return on the taxpayer's dollar."