The Hudson River and its estuary is once again an ecologically, economically, and culturally functional component of New York City’s natural environment. The estuary's cultural significance may derive largely from environmental education, including marine science programs for the public. These programs are understood as “cultural” ecosystem services but are rarely evaluated in economic terms. We estimated the economic value of the Hudson River Park’s environmental education programs. We compiled data on visits by schools and summer camps from 32 New York City school districts to the Park during the years 2014 and 2015. A “travel cost” approach was adapted from the field of environmental economics to estimate the value of education in this context. A small—but conservative—estimate of the Park’s annual education program benefits ranged between $7500 and 25,500, implying an average capitalized value on the order of $0.6 million. Importantly, organizations in districts with high proportions of minority students or English language learners were found to be more likely to participate in the Park’s programs. The results provide an optimistic view of the benefits of environmental education focused on urban estuaries, through which a growing understanding of ecological systems could lead to future environmental improvements.

哈德逊河及其河口再次成为纽约市自然环境的生态，经济和文化功能组成部分。河口的文化意义可能主要来自环境教育，包括面向公众的海洋科学计划。这些计划被理解为“文化”生态系统服务，但很少从经济角度进行评估。我们估算了哈德逊河公园的环境教育计划的经济价值。我们汇总了2014年和2015年纽约市32个学区的学校和夏令营访问公园的数据。从环境经济学领域改编了“旅行费用”方法，以估算在此背景下的教育价值。对公园的年度教育计划收益的一个小而保守的估计介于7500美元至25,500美元之间，这意味着平均资本化价值约为60万美元。重要的是，发现少数民族学生或英语学习者比例较高的地区的组织更有可能参加公园的计划。结果提供了对以城市河口为重点的环境教育的好处的乐观看法，通过这种看法，对生态系统的日益了解可以导致未来的环境改善。