Treesearch

Wilderness-based outdoor adventure programs are intended to produce positive change in participants. There are a significant number of these programs, with Hattie and others (1997) reporting that in 1994 alone, there were over 40,000 students participating in Outward Bound programs. Not all of these programs occur in wilderness, but significant portions of them do. A major goal of these programs is the improvement and development of participants’ self-concept and self-efficacy through wilderness-based activities. These activities provide opportunities for physical, emotional and cognitive...

In recent years, some philosophers, historians and literary critics have condemned the “Received Wilderness Idea.” Close examination reveals that this Received Wilderness Idea is a literary/philosophical construct little related to the Real Wilderness Idea that conservationists have used to establish the National Wilderness Preservation System. Analysis of the origin of the word “wilderness,” the meaning of the Wilderness Act and the history of the conservation movement show the Real Wilderness Idea and the National Wilderness Preservation System to be robust.

This paper describes an unusual use of wilderness for inquiry: a college course in ethics which includes a 10 day wilderness trip as an integral part of the course. Through a combination of traditional classroom learning and experiential education students are encouraged to develop a new vision of ethics – ethics as a kind of wisdom about how to live a full and richly satisfying life. Students come to rely on the awe inspiring sublimity and beauty found in the San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado to explore first-hand what it means to live as an ethical community in the wilderness.

Land can be described in a space defined by two fundamental qualities: naturalness and freedom. The axis of naturalness describes the wholeness of the ecosystem relative to a historical norm, while the axis of freedom describes the degree to which land remains outside of human control. Some land can be natural but not free, and vice versa, but the most natural and free are the most wild — they are the lands we recognize as wilderness. These concepts are illustrated through the mapping of indicators of wildness, derived from readily available data in a Geographic Information System.

The desire of the public to protect free-ranging animals in environments that are devoid of natural regulators can lead to overabundance of urban wildlife in closed habitats. In some parks and reserves, innovative management plans are needed that will include protocols to determine when and if artificial methods of population control should be applied to free-ranging wildlife as an acceptable alternative to hunting or culling. One management option that soon may be available for wildlife application is contraception. Information important to the development of approved contraception...

Research was begun in 1995 to describe factors influencing the spatial dynamics and persistence of federally listed chinook salmon within the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Results addressed two objectives: 1) description of chinook salmon redd distributions, and 2) comparison of index and total redd counts. Annual redd counts ranged from 20 to 661, and 99% of redds were constructed in tributaries. Redds were observed at elevations between 1,140 and 2,070 m, with a majority (56%) >1,900 m. The distribution of redds deviated from a random pattern and fluctuated with adult...

Judging the impact of social and technological trends on the future of wilderness is complex. Declining public trust, growing demands for scrutiny, a need to recognize the link between biophysical and socioeconomic systems, and the need for criteria to select among alternative futures challenge us. A burgeoning global population will increase resource impacts, but more critically, the growing gap between haves and have-nots will aggravate equity concerns. Future technological changes are problematic; they will enhance understanding of wilderness but also make it more accessible. We lack...

Large areas of lowland tropical rain-forests in the neotropics have been burned over the past 6,000 years, mostly by pre-Colombian agriculturists. This paper presents additional evidence of fires and other human impacts in neotropical forests, and considers the opportunities and limitations of different approaches to determining past land-use “signatures.” Knowledge of ancient land use practices may be used to advance an appreciation for the possible roles of past human disturbances in the suite of biological processes that promote diversity in lowland rain-forests. As wilderness designatio...

We are often urged to preserve wilderness for the sake of future generations. Future generations consist of potential persons who are mute stakeholders in the decisions of today. Many claims about the rights of future generations or our present obligations to them have been vigorously advanced and just as vigorously denied. Recent theorists, however, have argued for a communitarian basis for these obligations, which emphasizes the need future generations will have for clean air, water, biodiversity, and the like. Such a move denies the traditional, liberal, anthropocentric reasons for...

The Middle Fork Salmon River drainage of the Frank Church River-Of-No-Return Wilderness has a history of livetock grazing from 1890 to 1950, and changes in grazing pressure from native ungulates. High mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) populations occurred between 1940 and 1960, and high elk (Cervus elaphus) populations occurred in the 1990s. This paper describes the shrub-steppe communities inside and adjacent to exclosures in the Middle Fork. Also presented is the current vegetative appearance at sites photographed in 1925, 1968, and 1988. Comparisons of plant species composition and...