In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, 230 miles south of Washington, D.C., stands a 215-foot tall rock arch called Natural Bridge. A tributary of the James River flows beneath. A 347-foot cavern lies inside the park surrounding Natural Bridge. The 1,600-acre park receives about 300,000 visitors a year. This park has been in private hands since 1774, when Thomas Jefferson paid King George III 20 shillings for it. Today, the park belongs to Natural Bridge of Virginia, a private company controlled by a Washington, D.C., real estate developer who purchased it in 1988 for $6.6 million. The reason he paid so much is that the park earns a tidy profit, estimated at $5 million per year. A park visitor pays $22.50 to see the bridge, take a tour of the cave, and see a wax museum and a toy museum. A visitor can also buy souvenirs at park shops, purchase food at one of its three on-site restaurants, and pay to stay in one of the park’s 180 guest rooms. To attract these profit-generating visitors, the company pays close attention to details. It pays botanists to plant and care for native plants, and it stocks the river with rainbow trout. The park is kept free of graffiti: The last known person to carve his initials into Natural Bridge was a young surveyor by the name of George Washington.

Some economists have argued that lands currently owned by the government and administered by national and state park services might receive better long-term care if they were privately owned and administered. Natural Bridge is one example of a part of the environment that the profit motive is helping preserve.

Why does the profit motive encourage environmental conservation efforts at a private park?