Mapping wilderness character in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Abstract

The Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness was established in September of 1984 when President Ronald Reagan signed the California Wilderness Act (PL 98-425). In March 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (PL 111-11) designating the John Krebs Wilderness and the Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness Addition (all wholly contained within SEKI). Currently a total of 808,078 acres of SEKI are designated as wilderness and are a part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, wherein wilderness character is to be preserved. An additional 29,516 acres of these parks are proposed wilderness, and are managed as wilderness per NPS policy. Finally, 212 acres are classified as Designated Potential Wilderness Areas and would be designated as wilderness if the existing non-conforming uses (such as powerlines and inholdings) were no longer present. The 837,806 acres of SEKI designated and managed as wilderness comprise 96.7% of all lands within SEKI (Figure 1).

Citation

Tricker, James; Landres, Peter; Fauth, Gregg; Hardwick, Paul; Eddy, Alex. 2014. Mapping wilderness character in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/SEKI/NRTR-2014/872. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science. 82 p.