by COArgonaut » Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:34 pm
I suppose that there is a more significant impact.
Let’s assume that all 82 people who bought a permit actually used it. Good assumption: a few might have bought one and didn’t use it. And there are some who didn’t buy one and went dredging anyway. Let’s assume that if they can’t dredge, they aren’t going to come visit our fair state.
How many of these dredgers stayed up there? I would guess all of em. Shall we assume each one spent a week?
Some people camped (this one did). Some stayed in a pay to stay campground. Others stay in a hotel. How about an average impact of $25 a day?
And eat. We gotta eat. Personally, I usually buy just about all of my food and drink in Buena Vista. I would guess at least $100 a week, $15 a day.
$15 a day for groceries, $25 a day for place to stay, another $10 a day for gas time seven days is $350 a week. For 82 people that works out to $28,700. I would bet this is way low; stay for more time, buy some other items. At current prices, I pay about $80 to fill the truck, and another $50 or so for dredge gas.
It looks like the $2050 that the BLM isn’t going to take in is peanuts compared to the overall impact to the area. And, with the departure of the miners, there isn’t going to be that many more rafters or fisherfolks taking up the slack.
ed