As the Pagosa Springs economy slowly lifts itself out of the springtime doldrums, the folks and businesses who depend heavily upon tourism for their livelihoods — the hotels and inns, restaurants, specialty retailers, and recreation providers, to name a few — begin to think about ways to assure another decent tourism season, a season that in Archuleta County extends from about late May until early September. For the one-third of local businesses largely dependent upon tourism, maximizing those four months is crucial.
Two years ago, the voters of the Town of Pagosa Springs added a lodging tax to the price of an overnight stay in our local lodging facilities, and that tax — which last year amounted to about $375,000 — is earmarked for promoting tourism in Pagosa Springs. Thus far, much of that revenue has been spent on print advertising in various important tourist markets, but the group that handles those funds, the Town Tourism Committee (TTC), has been looking for fresh ideas for attracting new and returning tourists.
At tonight’s Town Council meeting, two local businessmen, Thad Cano of Ski and Bow Rack, and Mark Mesker of Paint Connection Plus, hope to present one such fresh idea. Cano, whose Ski and Bow Rack caters to fishermen as well as skiers and bow hunters, began researching the importance of fishing-related tourism in Archuleta County, and found that 2007 sales of non-resident fishing licenses in Archuleta County amounted to 13,161 licenses of various types; local resident licenses totaled 2,682.
Cano then took the TTC’s calculation of the amount of money the average tourist spends per day in Pagosa Springs — $150 — and multiplied it by the number of non-resident licenses.
 By Cano’s calculations, 13,161 non-resident fishermen spending $150 per day contributed a hefty $1.9 million dollars to the local economy in 2007. If the fishing experience of those fishermen could be enhanced — by providing, for example, a stretch of the San Juan River running right through downtown, stocked with thousands of trout — then in theory those fishermen would encourage other fishermen to visit Pagosa Springs in future years. Over the long run, Cano proposes, such a fish stocking program could attract millions of new tourist dollars to our community.
Cano’s preliminary proposal — the “Pagosa Quality Fishing Project,” which will be run past the Town Council tonight, and then past the TTC on March 20 — calls for the TTC to allot the cost of “one pound of stocked trout per non-resident license sold.” Such a program would cost about $48,000 a year, and would stock about 8,000 trout annually in the San Juan River within the Town limits.
Some of the smaller trout might be stocked into the ponds behind the River Center, possibly to be earmarked for some type of children’s fishing program, Cano suggested.
Cano’s best case scenerio paints this picture: if each non-resident fisherman during 2008 — who we hope will be able to catch one of those 8,000 stocked trout from the downtown stretch of river — goes home satisfied with their visit to Pagosa Springs, and then encourages just one additional fisherman to visit Pagosa Springs, then the $48,000 investment could generate an additional $1.9 million in business revenue in 2009.
Click here to view a PDF of the Pagosa Quality Fishing Project. (Large file, 2.4MB, may take several minutes to download.)
To support his case, Cano points to a successful fish stocking program in Red River, New Mexico, where the community has stocked approximately $30,000 worth of fish each year for the past ten years. The Red River Chamber of Commerce now boasts on their website:
“Bag your limit! The Rio Colorado is stocked with more trout than any other public river in the nation.”
As Cano and others have noted, the excitement of a well-stocked stretch of river could possibly be enhanced if fishing were limited to “catch and release only.” This regulation would allow numerous fishermen to enjoy catching — and releasing — the same trout, and would allow the trout to grow to larger sizes. Over time, the downtown stretch of the San Juan could develop a reputation for plentiful, sizable trout — and that might eventually help downtown businesses thrive, at least during the fishing season.
It’s worth noting that downtown businesses have been stocking the downtown San Juan for several years, paying for the fish with private donations.
Looking closely at Cano’s calculations, there are several questions that the Town Council and the TTC may find themselves asking.
One question: Cano’s calculation of 13,161 non-resident fishermen includes 4,600 “Additional Day Fishing” licenses. By definition, an “additional day license” means that the non-resident had already purchased a five-day or one-day license. So it appears that the actual number of non-resident fishermen may be closer to 8,500 rather than 13,161. On the other hand, a fisherman purchasing a "five-day license" probably contributed a least $750 to the local economy, not merely $150 for a one-day stay.
Another question: Of those 8,500 fishermen, how many of them would choose to fish in a location more remote than downtown Pagosa Springs, even if they knew the downtown river was well-stocked with trout? As any fisherman will tell you, fishing is not just about catching fish; it’s also about finding a beautiful, solitary stretch of river and spending the day in “fishing meditation.” No matter how well stocked, the San Juan running through downtown may not offer that type of fishing experience for all fishermen.
Still another question: If 8,000 trout were stocked into the downtown stretch of the San Juan, those fish are free to swim upstream and downstream at will. Assuming that any particular fishing hole can accommodate only so many trout, how many of those 8,000 trout will still be living in the downtown stretch of the San Juan one week after they are stocked?
These and other questions will no doubt be raised by the folks who hold the purse strings of our lodging tax dollars. |