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In the late 1970s, in response to rapidly increasing visitor use
and proliferating impacts, the condition of all campsites in the
backcountry of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks was assessed
by park research staff. All campsites were located and assigned to
one of 273 different subzones; their condition was assessed on the
basis of eight impact parameters: vegetation density, vegetation
composition, total area of the campsite, barren core area, campsite
development, litter and duff, social trails, and tree mutilations.
In 2006 and 2007, to ascertain trends in impact, the campsite
survey was repeated in 120 of the 273 subzones (44% of the
wilderness).
The Wilderness Visitor Experience Workshop was held at the Lubrecht
Experimental Forest near Missoula, MT, April 4-7, 2011. The science
and management of wilderness visitors is now more than half a
century old. Much has been learned over this period. And yet it
seems that enthusiasm for recreation research generally and for
wilderness visitor science specifically has been waning recently.
With the 50th Anniversary of The Wilderness Act approaching in
2014, it seemed timely to celebrate and capture what has been
learned over the past 50 years. We also wanted to revitalize this
research tradition and prepare for the next half century of visitor
experience research and stewardship. For three days, twenty-one
scientists and managers gave presentations and discussed important
topics. The original idea for the workshop was to comprehensively
survey the breadth of research on wilderness visitor experience,
such that these proceedings would provide a state-of-knowledge on
this topic. Indeed, a number of the papers produced are
comprehensive reviews. Some participants, however, chose to present
empirical papers, without comprehensive reviews, and others
presented original essays suggesting important avenues for
wilderness research. The result is a collection of reviews,
empirical research and personal essays that provide a rich (if not
comprehensive) overview of the past, present and future of
wilderness visitor experience research. Prior to the workshop, a
number of driving issues and questions emerged. A number revolved
around the issue of the nature of wilderness experiences and their
stewardship. Specific questions under this topic included: Are
wilderness experiences unique? How are high quality wilderness
experiences best described? What are we managing for? Do we manage
wilderness conditions regardless of the experiences people seek?
What attributes most influence experience quality and how should we
define thresholds for these attributes? How can management protect
against threats and/or enhance experiences? How much should
managers intervene to manage for "ideal" experiences? The workshop
was convened to celebrate and review 50 years of research on
wilderness visitor experience and its influence on wilderness
stewardship. These proceedings are organized in three sections. The
first section contains 12 papers that review literature or describe
empirical research about wilderness visitor experiences. The second
section provides three papers on management frameworks and the
perspectives of planners and managers. The third section consists
of five papers on wilderness experiences and the future.
The U.S. Forest Service is responsible for managing over 35 million
acres of designated wilderness, about 18 percent of all the land
managed by the agency. Nearly all (90 percent) of the National
Forests and Grasslands administer designated wilderness. Although
the central mandate from the 1964 Wilderness Act is that the
administering agencies preserve the wilderness character in these
designated areas, the concept of wilderness character has largely
been absent in Forest Service efforts to manage wilderness. The
purpose of this document is to help National Forest planners,
wilderness staff, and project leaders apply in a practical way the
concept of wilderness character to forest and project planning, the
National Environmental Policy Act process, on-the-ground wilderness
management, and wilderness character trend monitoring that is
relevant to an individual wilderness.
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