About 5,000 acres of wetlands along Clear Creek and its tributaries lie within the Western Kentucky coal field. Coal companies are required to reclaim wetlands after mining the coal. Even with reclamation, however, the natural wetlands would be lost. Hardwood trees would be removed and waterfowl would leave the Clear Creek area. Suppose a coal company is granted a permit to mine the Clear Creek wetland Area. In cooperation with state agencies, the coal company would construct wetland lakes, stock ducks and geese on the lakes and manage the area to insure that waterfowl populations do not fall. Would you be willing to contribute year, out of your own household budget, to the Wetland Preservation Fund to preserve the Clear Creek wetland?

Survey included info on acreage, water regime, percentage of the year that flooding occurs, the specific plant fish and wildlife species found and the wetland's flood control and water quality improvement functions. Included in each survey were a photo of the relevant wetland type and state and county maps showing the location of the wetland along with info about other wetlands.

A ranged from $3 to $49 with five amounts

from "Environmental Interest Group Behavior and Self-Selection Bias in Contingent Valuation Mail Surveys" Growth and Change Winter 1991 pages 10-18

Richard C. Ready, John C. Whitehead, and Glenn C. Blomquist "Contingent Valuation When Respondents Are Ambivalent" Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 29 pages 181-196 (1995)