…Headwaters Economics, an independent nonprofit research group from Montana that studies land management and community development issues, assumed matching 75,000-acre parcels for the purposes of developing the two studies and an executive summary, said Ben Alexander, the firm’s associate director.
One study analyzed the economies of Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. The other, what Headwaters called the Peer Report, compared the economies of 16 peer communities within the U.S. — communities near six national parks, six national recreation areas, and four combined national park and recreation areas ― to those areas’ economies.
The studies found that from 1970 to 2010, the peer region economies with national parks or combined areas grew faster than the economies, population, employment and real personal income of the two Maine counties.
The peer region economies also diversified faster, the studies showed. Manufacturing and construction accounted for most job losses in the peer areas, though the two Maine counties have done well diversifying their economies, Alexander said.
National-park visitor spending created on average 839 private-sector and 216 National Park Service jobs in the peer communities. If the new park attracts 15 percent of the 2.5 million annual visitors to Acadia National Park, it could create 451 new private-sector jobs, the studies showed.…