DIY Economic Impact Program Helps 3 Vilas Area Groups Produce Reports
The Wisconsin Office of Outdoor Recreation has created tools to help communities quantify the value of trails beyond the enjoyment they bring to residents and visitors. Learn about real experiences and results utilizing them.
Three trail groups that roll through the Vilas County area have known for years how well used and beneficial their trails are. Now they have documented some of the key benefits: their trails are used by over 225,000 people a year and generate a total of over $30 million annually for their local economies.
WinMan Trails, the Heart of Vilas Trail System, and the Three Eagle Trail (which also runs through Oneida County) are three of the 10 entities around the state that have taken advantage of the Do-It-Yourself Economic Impact Program to get an accurate measurement of the important dollars-and-cents payoff of their parks and trails.
The DIY program was begun by the state’s Office of Outdoor Recreation (OOR) in 2024. As the OOR website explains, “While communities can see and feel the benefits of outdoor recreation, it can be challenging and costly to quantify the local impacts.” The Do-It-Yourself Economic Impact Program “removes those barriers by providing the knowledge, tools and support to conduct an economic analysis and produce a report.”
The Program gives groups resources to learn about doing an economic impact study, so they can decide how much they want to put into the process of collecting and analyzing visitor data.
“A Do-It-Yourself Guide: Conducting and Using Visitor and Recreational User Research” can be downloaded for free. It “details the process of collecting data, calculating impacts and telling the story,” according to the website.
To gain more know-how, OOR hosts two 90-minute virtual sessions to cover the fundamentals of economic impact analysis and how to use the DIY Guide to navigate the process independently. Virtual workshop participants who want to go further can apply for the nine-month practicum during which they actually collect and analyze data and create a final report. Groups involved in the practicum receive one-on-one coaching and technical assistance all along the way from the OOR and its partner, The Harbinger Consultancy.
The people at WinMan Trails in Winchester, WI, describe it as a free adventure park that offers “year-round opportunities for biking, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing or just chilling.” They took part in the practicum in 2024, the program’s pilot year. The team collected trail use data using car counters, trail counters, group size reports, and in-depth surveys to get direct data on visitor spending, behavior and motivation. Their work revealed that people visited the park over 55,000 times in 2024 and added over $4 million to the local economy.
The Three Eagle Trail and the Heart of Vilas were practicum participants in 2025, and their reports were just released earlier this month.
The 12.7 mile Three Eagle Trail is used by “people on bike, foot and skis.” It connects Eagle River in Vilas County to Three Lakes in Oneida County. A key finding regarding that trail was that it contributes $2 million (a year) to the economies of both municipalities. Chris Nafziger, president of the Three Eagle Trail Foundation, said “The research process was a bit overwhelming at first glance, but we worked with a Harbinger consultant who helped to steer our efforts. The quality of the research process was very high; we used conservative regional multipliers and chose metrics that minimized our assumptions going into the project. The caliber of the academic rigor was the same as that of other state-led projects which assessed snowmobile and ATV/UTV data.”
The 52-mile Heart of Vilas Trail System connects five communities in Vilas and Iron counties with asphalt-surfaced walking and biking trails. Through their work with the Do-It-Yourself Economic Impact Program, they determined that the Heart of Vilas trails attract over 160,000 cyclists a year and generate $25.7 million for the area’s economy.
Since 2024, ten groups have completed Do-It-Yourself Economic Impact Program practicums: Dodge County, Eau Claire, the Heart of Vilas System, Lafayette County, Nine Mile Forest, Oconto County, Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Peninsula State Park, the Three Eagle Trail, and WinMan Trails.
The combined findings of all 10 studies show that more than $75 million in local economic activity was generated by the people who used the outdoor activity amenities at the sites operated by those groups.
To find out more about the Do-It-Yourself Economic Impact Program, download “A Do-It-Yourself Guide: Conducting and Using Visitor and Recreational User Research,” and register for upcoming workshops:
- Session 1: Visitor Research on February 10, 2026 from 12-1:30 p.m.
- Session 2: Data Analysis on February 17, 2026 from 12-1:30 p.m.
The practicum begins in April and runs through the end of December 2026, with final reports published in 2027. To be considered for the practicum, at least one team member must attend both of the live workshop sessions. Up to five teams may be selected for the practicum. Learn about additional practicum details here.
Find the 3 completed reports referenced within this newspost below + all ten reports since 2024 here.
Photo Credit – Heart of Vilas Trail featured photo (at top): Manitowish Waters Visitor Bureau