Mapping wilderness character in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve

Abstract

The recent development of an interagency strategy to monitor wilderness character, Keeping It Wild 2: An Updated Interagency Strategy for Monitoring Wilderness Character Across the National Wilderness Preservation System (Landres et al. 2015), allows on-the-ground managers and decision makers to assess whether stewardship actions for an individual wilderness are fulfilling the legislative mandate to “preserve wilderness character.” By using credible data that are consistently collected, one can assess how wilderness character changes over time and evaluate how stewardship actions affect wilderness character. As most of these data depict spatial or geographic features in wilderness, a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based approach was developed to depict impacts to wilderness character in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR) wilderness.

Citation

Pace, Kristin K.; Tricker, James; Baltensperger, Andrew; Landres, Peter. 2017. Mapping wilderness character in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Natural Resource Report: NPS/GAAR/NRR - 2017/1446. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science. 101 p.