This course—offered in Fall 2024—combines two related courses: Tell the Economic Story of Your Conserved Lands and Trails Without Hiring an Economist and Tell the Economic Story of Your National and State Parks and Heritage AreasWithout Hiring an Economist.

Economic impact is an important selling point for funding nature and heritage areas, on both public or privately conserved land. Reliable economic figures can help coalesce support among local and state officials, who are often gatekeepers to funding for easements and acquisition, maintenance, construction, expansion and programs. Understanding the varied economic benefits of parks, heritage areas, private preserves and trails can also help you expand your circle of allies and partners to include economic developers and the local business community. And it can help build public support.

A tremendous body of studies has substantiated the economic value of parks and trails, collaborative heritage areas and scenic byways, and conserved wild and working landscapes. These studies can be useful in helping you make your case, but it’s even more compelling to speak directly about the benefits of your program, your locally conserved lands, your trails, your park.

You don’t need to hire an economist and wade through piles of complex data to understand a range of economic benefits. This course will help you learn to paint a broad, research and data-based picture of economic effects—or project the benefits of a proposed trail, park or conservation program. You will also learn how to tell that story to support advocacy, fundraising, conservation-based economic development, and stronger community relationships. You will learn and adapt a proven approach that engages community resources without hiring an economist, consultant or communications shop.

In this course, you will:

• Adapt Harbinger’s “engaged analysis” approach to outline an economic study for your area.

• Identify goals and match up data sources, research methods and resources for conducting your study.

• Learn how to assess and describe a wide range of economic and community benefits, and how to create simple, realistic ballpark economic estimates and projections.

• Learn when, whether and how to update old economic studies.

• Learn the basics of interpreting findings and presenting data to different audiences.

• Review model studies and reports from other areas.

Learn more about this approach to economic analysis on the Understand Your Place page and the Cameron County, Texas, profile on the Write a New Chapter page on this site. See the Working Together for the Front report for another example.

FREE LEARNING CREDITS

Through a partnership with American Trails, Harbinger is offering free learning credits for this and selected other courses. Credits are available by request, at no charge beyond the course registration fee, contingent on completing the entire course and a brief post-course quiz. American Trails is a certified provider, and you may request credits for:

• American Institute of Certified Planners Continuing Maintenance (AICP CM)

• Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System (LA CES PDH)

• CEU/PDH equivalency petition for other accepting organizations

This course provides 5.00 CM | 5.00 LA CES NON-HSW | 0.50 CEU/5.00 PDH Equivalency Petition

Good Words from Course Participants

We covered it all in this course, from generating the “usual” economic data, to engaging our community to build support through the acts of research and data gathering, to personalizing the economic story for our audiences. I had never thought about these key levers before in the context of economic analysis and yet I think they are exactly what we need. Really wonderful stuff.

Ann Welz, The Trust for Public Land

Working with Michele was a pleasure. She and Harbinger were more than flexible, and went out of their way to do everything possible to make the Economic Benefit course financially feasible for our network members. On top of that, Michele worked with us ahead of time to ensure that the course included information and examples that were relevant to our state.

We started a weekly post-course discussion group (highly recommended), which allowed participants to share ideas and compare notes. As a result, we’ve been working on plans, both at our individual organizations and collectively, for putting what we learning into action. Michele has been supporting our efforts with follow up coaching.

Donna Bissett, Maine Coast Heritage Trust