Connecting federal employees, scientists, educators, and the public with their wilderness heritage

Text size: A | A | A [Print]

Wilderness Character Toolbox

The Wilderness Character Toolbox is a 'work in progress' and represents only the information available. In addition to the resources provided here, you may also be able to obtain advice and recommendations through discussion on Wilderness Connect. Date of last update: 5/1/13.

EXPAND ALL | COLLAPSE ALL

Introduction to Wilderness Character

Presentation on Preserving Wilderness Character: Why, What, and How
A presentation with notes that describes why it is important to preserve wilderness character, what wilderness character is, and how it would be used to help wilderness stewardship.

Keeping It Wild: An Interagency Strategy to Monitor Trends in Wilderness Character Across the National Wilderness Preservation System
This publication was developed by an interagency team to help improve wilderness stewardship at all administrative levels-from on-the-ground management to national policy review. This interagency strategy was designed to apply to every wilderness regardless of administering agency, size, geographic location, type of ecosystem, permitted uses, or any other attribute.

Tables of Indicators and Measures for the Interagency Strategy
Tables from the Interagency Strategy publication listing the management questions, indicators, possible measures, and data sources for each of the four qualities of wilderness character.

Applying the Concept of Wilderness Character to Wilderness Planning, Monitoring, and Management
This publication shows planners, wilderness and resource staff, and project leaders how the concept of wilderness character could be directly applied at the local level to develop management plans, fulfill NEPA compliance, develop monitoring, and be used in several other wilderness management tasks. A fully developed hypothetical example of a Decision Memo is provided. Although the title states that it is written for National Forests, the publication is written generally and would directly apply to all four wilderness managing agencies.

Agency-Specific Guidance

BLM
1. Measuring Attributes of Wilderness Character: BLM Implementation Guidance, Version 1.5
FWS
1. Policy
2. 2010 Memo establishing a Wilderness Character Monitoring Committee
3. Wilderness Fellows Training Agenda, June 14-16, 2011
FS
1. Monitoring Selected Conditions Related to Wilderness Character: A National Framework
2. FAQs for the Forest Service National Framework
  Frequency asked questions about the Forest Service national framework for monitoring trends in wilderness character.
3. Forest Service Technical Guide for Monitoring Selected Conditions Related to Wilderness Character
  This 282-page Technical Guide provides detailed protocals for monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on trends in wilderness character based on data available within the Forest Service. Even though these protocols were developed specifically for the Forest Service, the other wilderness managing agencies may find these protocols useful as models or as ideas for developing their own protocols to monitor trends in wilderness character.
4. National Minimum Protocol for Monitoring Solitude
5. Wilderness Character and Characteristics

Mapping Wilderness Character

Mapping Wilderness Character in the Death Valley Wilderness
A GIS-based approach was used to identify the state of wilderness character in the Death Valley Wilderness (DEVA). A set of measures were identified by DEVA staff to be used as the basis for developing the model and selecting data inputs. These data inputs were derived from a variety of spatial datasets, and were entered into the model using a common relative scale. Each data input was weighted by DEVA staff to reflect its importance in relation to other data inputs. The model was used to generate maps for each of the four qualities of wilderness character, which were added together to produce a map of wilderness character for DEVA. This spatial model will be used to assess outcomes of different planning alternatives on wilderness character, and will for a basline from which to track change over time in wilderness character.
Mapping Wilderness Character in the Death Valley Wilderness - Technical Report
This document provides the technical aspects and the methodology used to map the quality of wilderness character in Death Valley National Park (DEVA). It is written to support the parent document above.

Monitoring Changes in Wilderness Character
This presentation describes what wilderness character is; why it is important to monitor; and what indicators to use in tracking changes.

Narrated PowerPoint Presentation (66.2 MB)
This narrated Power Point (.pptx) file is about 44 minutes long and, depending on the speed of your Internet connection, may take a while to download.
Presentation Transcript (4.22 MB)
This is the same version as the narrated presentation, only it does not have sound and instead has the transcription in the notes section of each slide.

Wilderness Fellows
Wilderness Fellows are boots-on-the-ground and brains-in-the-cube people to help wilderness managers develop a baseline assessment of wilderness character and accomplish many other tasks that are the building blocks of wilderness stewardship. The agency-specific links below provide detail about the Wilderness Fellows program in each agency, and provide their completed reports. For more information, contact Shane Barrow at American Conservation Experience (sbarrow@usaconservation.org) or Peter Landres at the Leopold Institute (plandres@fs.fed.us).

Who
The Wilderness Fellows program began in 2010 when the National Park Service hired six recent post-undergraduate and graduate-level students to live with staff at wilderness parks, focus on wilderness stewardship tasks, and get a lot of work done. The Fish and Wildlife Service continued this program, hiring 10 Wilderness Fellows in 2011, and in 2012 a truly Interagency Wilderness Fellows program was initiated with eight Fish and Wildlife Service Fellows, four National Park Service Fellows, and two Forest Service Fellows. Wilderness Fellows are not merely interns and they are not volunteers; Wilderness Fellows are highly motivated, the top of their class, and passionately interested in Federal land management and conservation. Wilderness Fellows build capacity for wilderness stewardship and are the future leaders within the Federal land management agencies.
What
The 1964 Wilderness Act, all subsequent federal wilderness legislation, and the policies of the four federal agencies (BLM, FS, FWS, and NPS) administering this land mandate preserving the â€œwilderness characterâ€� of these lands. But with declining staff and budgets, the agencies are unable to fulfill this legal and policy mandate. Wilderness Fellows work closely with local staff to create a baseline assessment of wilderness character using the Keeping It Wild definitions and protocols developed and published by an interagency team in 2008. Wilderness Fellows actively participate in identifying measures, gathering data, and entering these data into a newly developed interagency wilderness character monitoring database. In the National Park Service, Wilderness Fellows also create a wilderness character narrative, gather legislative information on the wilderness, and help identify future challenges facing the wilderness. All Wilderness Fellows assist management staff in a variety of different ways to help further wilderness stewardship.
How
Wilderness Fellows are hired for three or six months through a partnership agreement between the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute and American Conservation Experience. Wilderness Fellows receive a stipend of $500 per week, on-site housing, and may also qualify for an AmeriCorp Education Award. A three-day training is provided on wilderness, wilderness character, wilderness character monitoring, the agencies, and practical advice on working with management staff. Additional site-specific and agency-specific training is provided by the host, as needed, when the Wilderness Fellow arrives at the site. Travel is provided to the training and to the work site. The average cost-to-government for stipend and travel is approximately $12,000 for a three-month Wilderness Fellow, and approximately $21,000 for a six-month Wilderness Fellow.
2012 Interagency Wilderness Fellows Initiative
2012 Interagency Wilderness Fellows Training Agenda
Wilderness Fellows - Congressional Briefing
2012 Interagency Wilderness Fellows Blog
2012 Meet the Interagency Wilderness Fellows
Practical Advice on Being a Wilderness Fellow.pdf
Wilderness Fellows Reminder List
Fish and Wildlife Service Wilderness Fellows
Forest Service Wilderness Fellows
1. Mission Mountains Wilderness, Wilderness Character Monitoring Report, 2012
2. Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Wilderness Character Monitoring Report, 2012
National Park Service Wilderness Fellows

Wilderness Character and its Application to Wilderness Stewardship Webinar Series
This webinar series is delivered by the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, and University of Montana Wilderness Institute.

Session 1: The Foundation and Qualities of Wilderness Character
This webinar was held on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Mountain Time. The 90-minute session featured Peter Landres, research ecologist with the Leopold Institute, and defined wilderness character and explored each of its five qualities. Peter also explained the importance of wilderness character and its application to wilderness stewardship.
1. Prereading: Park Science 28 (3) Winter 2011-2012, pages 42-48
2. Recording (windows media video, 26.2 MB)
3. PowerPoint
4. Questions and Answers
Session 2: Making Decisions: Evaluating Impacts and Tradeoffs to Wilderness Character
This webinar was held on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Mountain Time. The 90-minute session featured Peter Landres, research ecologist with the Leopold Institute, evaluating the tradeoffs of effects to the different qualitites of wilderness character as a result of management action. Karen Lindsey presented a case study to illustrate these concepts on Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout reintroduction.
1. Recording (windows media video, 27.1 MB)
2. PowerPoint (Peter Landres)
3. PowerPoint (Karen Lindsey)
4. Questions and Answers
Session 3: Integrating Wilderness Character with Land Management Planning Efforts
This webinar was held on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Mountain Time. The 90-minute session featured Peter Landres, Ecologist at the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute; Linda Merigliano, Wilderness Program Manager on the Bridger-Teton National Forest; and Charlie Callagan, Wilderness Coordinator at Death Valley National Park. The webinar focused on how wilderness character should be integrated into agency planning efforts that have the potential to affect wilderness character.
Session 4: Wilderness Character Monitoring
This webinar was held on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Mountain Time. The 90-minute session featured five presenters. Peter Landres, research ecologist with the Leopold Institute, gave an overview of the "Keeping is Wild" strategy. The following four presenters described the status of wilderness character monitoring within their agencies: Chris Barns, Bureau of Land Management Representative to the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center; Nancy Roeper, Fish and Wildlife Service National Wilderness Coordinator; Steve Boutcher, Forest Service Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Information Manager; Chris Holbeck, National Park Service Midwest Region Wilderness Coordinator.
1. Recording (windows media video, 30.5 MB)
2. PowerPoint (Peter Landres)
3. PowerPoint (Chris Barns)
4. PowerPoint (Nancy Roeper)
5. PowerPoint (Steve Boutcher)
6. PowerPoint (Chris Holbeck)

5th Quality of Wilderness Character Webinar Series
This webinar series is delivered by the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, and University of Montana Wilderness Institute.

Session 1
This webinar was held on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 10:30am, Mountain Time. The 90-minute session featured Chris Barns, Bureau of Land Management Representative to the Carhart Center, and Sandee Dingman, a biologist with the National Park Service. The speakers briefly discussed what the 5th quality, Other Features of Value, is and how it relates to the other four qualities of wilderness character. They then explored what fits within this quality i.e. ecological, geological or other features of scientific, educational, or scenic value that are unique to a particular wilderness area.
1. Recording (windows media video, 22.1 MB)
2. PowerPoint (Chris Barns)
3. PowerPoint (Sandee Dingman)
Session 2
This webinar was held on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 10:30am, Mountain Time. The 90-minute session featured Chris Barns, Bureau of Land Management Representative to the Carhart Center, and Pei-Lin Yu, Cultural Resource Specialist with the National Park Service, Intermountain Region, stationed at the Rocky Mountains CESU. The speakers focused on cultural resources as a component of the 5th quality, Other Features of Value, and discussed how to determine when and what cultural resources should be included within this 5th quality and what may enhance or degrade this component.
1. Recording (windows media video, 53 MB)
2. PowerPoint (Chris Barns)
3. PowerPoint (Pei-Lin Yu)

Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute's Wilderness Character Monitoring website