Amenity Trap: New report details economic strains and gains from Montana tourism

The Last Best Place has been discovered.

Across the state, tourists and second-homeowners pull up alongside trucks with stickers of Montana’s outline and the words: “WE’RE FULL.” They stroll through shops with coffee mugs, t-shirts and hats displaying similar sentiments. But the same tourists and transplants inject money into local economies, facilitating jobs and businesses.

The tension, however, comes from the flip-side of growing visitation to the Treasure State: strain on emergency response, crowded recreation facilities, traffic and other overburdened infrastructure. And often, locals are left with the bill after visitors go home. 

That double-edge sword of being a desirable outdoor recreation destination is known as the “amenity trap,” according to a new report from Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics. The report looks at the benefits and burdens faced by towns whose riches in outdoor recreation have brought a wealth of visitors too.

With me today is Joshua Murdock, outdoors and natural resources reporter for the Missoulian and a former reporter at the Idaho Mountain Express in Ketchum-Sun Valley, Idaho, who recently wrote about the report.

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Montana Untamed, hosted by Thom Bridge, covers the state's rugged landscape from hook and bullet to policy and science.