The role of ecological monitoring in managing wilderness

Abstract

Good management requires good information. Monitoring provides this information when it is structured into the process of management, well designed and executed. As federal and state agencies strive to implement a management paradigm based on sustaining ecosystems, ecological information becomes a vital part of managing natural resources. Inventory and monitoring programs can be bewilderingly complex, involving philosophical, scientific, statistical, economic, administrative and practical issues. This article explores a few of these issues. I discuss the general role ecological monitoring plays in protecting and preserving wilderness character, suggest some criteria for choosing among all the possible variables to monitor and close with some thoughts about what I believe are substantive emerging issues related to ecological monitoring in wilderness.

Citation

Landres, Peter B. 1995. The role of ecological monitoring in managing wilderness. Trends. 32(1): 10-13