Natural resources are still the foundation of the Rockies region economy even as it has shifted from extraction-based activities to recreation and tourism.
Headwaters Economics
Independent Nonpartisan Research
Walter Hecox
Walter E. Hecox, who received his PhD from Syracuse University (1969), is Professor Emeritus of Economics in the Environmental Program, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is also Senior Program Advisor, El Pomar Foundation’s Pikes Peak Recreation and Tourism Heritage Series. Professor Hecox has managed and performed research for the Grand Canyon Trust; Colorado Department of Natural Resources Executive Director’s Office; U.S. Dept. of Energy; World Bank; U.S. Agency for International Development; Southern African Development Coordination Conference; U.S. Military Academy; Ford Foundation; and the National Science Foundation. He founded and served for a decade as faculty advisor to the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project, supervising over 45 research studies on the eight-state Rockies region in demographics, energy, land management, climate change, and amenity economies.