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person,” he said.
And it’s important to talk to them in-person rather than call-
ing from an office, Bradley said, because it allows the climbers
to really understand why Bradley and Maples are doing the
study.
“You have somebody in-person that can really tell the per-
son being interviewed what this is for and what this is about,”
Bradley said. “You get a much better response out of people as
well. … They’re a little bit more invested in what happens.”
Maples and Bradley then ask climbers about their expendi-
tures.
“So for example, ‘How much did you spend on lodging during
your trip? How much did you spend on food? Gasoline?’ and so
forth — these are common categories for measuring economic
impact, because when a climber comes to this area from Lex-
ington and beyond, we want to know how their expenditures
change things in the local economy,” Maples said. “And what
we’re able to do is take the data that we collect from climb-
ers and make some estimates about what happens when that
money gets dropped in the economy.”
Maples added that it’s important to redo this study after his
previous study five years ago, too, because it reveals what he
compared to a snapshot in time, and how the Red River Gorge
has changed since five years ago. More climbers are visiting,
more people have purchased homes in the area, and more busi-
nesses have set up in the area, for example.
After the two are done collecting and analyzing data, as they
write the results of their studies, they try to make sure the
studies are accessible to anyone interested, Maples said.
“I always like to say I’m writing for my mom, because if my
mom can read the study and explain it to me, that’s what I
want. I want anyone to understand our studies and make use
of them,” he said. “One of the big things, too, is that we like to
make sure our studies are accessible to local governments so
they can use that information to make policy decisions that
might apply to them. So for example, they could think about
ways they can maybe increase access to rock climbing. Or
maybe work with the climbing community to find out more
about their economic interests that might not be fulfilled with
the economy the way it is.”
Red River Gorge is one Maples hopes to revisit every five
years, because he said it steadily continues to grow in popular-
ity, and the evidence they’ve collected so far shows the region
in general can benefit from the economic growth made by these
rock climbers.
Bradley agreed. He explained the people they’ve talked to so
far have disposable income, and they’re willing to spend it on
what they have, which in this case, equates to rock climbing at
Red River Gorge.
“It’s truly an extraordinary resource that we have to protect,
that we have to do everything we can to minimize that loving-
it-to-death effect that tends to happen with our public lands. We
just got to support it,” he said. “I think this is a very important
resource for both Kentuckians and even our identities as Ken-
tuckians. It’s an important part of the commonwealth. You can’t
understand Kentucky without the Red River Gorge.”