Update on wilderness character monitoring

Abstract

When Hubert Humphrey first introduced the Wilderness Act to the U.S. Senate in 1956, he said that “the agency having jurisdiction over any area within this [Wilderness] System will have the sanction and encouragement of Congress and the legal responsibility for preserving the area’s wilderness character.” Now, five decades later, the U.S. Forest Service developed a protocol to monitor trends in wilderness character. This protocol, as explained in IJW articles published in December 2004 and December 2006, assesses whether the wilderness character of a wilderness area is improving, stable, or degrading.

Citation

Landres, Peter. 2007. Update on wilderness character monitoring. International Journal of Wilderness. 13(2): 37-38.