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This Wilderness Character Monitoring Technical Guide provides a tested and refined
These pages contain corrected and annotated versions of documentation mostly to do with 'wilderness character' in the United States. So far we have:
methodology for monitoring trends in wilderness character based on lessons learned
from 15 years of experience developing and implementing wilderness character
monitoring across the National Wilderness Preservation System. This document
updates and replaces the Technical Guide for Monitoring Selected Conditions
Related to Wilderness Character (Landres et al. 2009), and provides protocols
for the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, to implement a nationally
consistent approach to wilderness character monitoring across all 448 wildernesses
administered by the agency. This approach also is consistent with the interagency
wilderness character monitoring strategy published in Keeping It Wild 2: An Updated
Interagency Strategy to Monitor Trends in Wilderness Character Across the
National Wilderness Preservation System (Landres et al. 2015) and endorsed in 2015
by the Interagency Wilderness Policy Council.


This technical guide builds on the best available data to yield a coherent
[[USFS Wilderness Character Monitoring Technical Guide]]
understanding of how wilderness character is changing over time. Wilderness
character monitoring provides the Forest Service:
* Information to show how agency stewardship makes a difference on the ground based on credible data that are collected consistently and endure over time.
* Accountability for the legal and policy mandate "to preserve wilderness character" by compiling key data to evaluate trends in conditions that tie directly to the Wilderness Act of 1964.
* A communication framework to comprehensively discuss wilderness stewardship needs and priorities related to preserving wilderness character within the Forest Service and with the public.


Wilderness character monitoring in the Forest Service is designed to be nationally
Eventually we will have it all. Promises promises.
consistent while allowing and encouraging local flexibility as necessary to meet
wilderness-specific needs. The statutory language of the Wilderness Act is used
to identify five qualities of wilderness character that form the foundation of this
monitoring: (1) Untrammeled, (2) Natural, (3) Undeveloped, (4) Solitude or Primitive
and Unconfined Recreation, and (5) Other Features of Value. This technical guide uses
Keeping It Wild 2’s organizational framework of qualities, monitoring questions, and
indicators to ensure consistency across the four wilderness managing agencies (the
Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). Each agency identifies measures to evaluate trends
in these five qualities. This technical guide describes the Forest Service required as
well as optional measures. Locally developed measures to meet wilderness-specific
information needs are also discussed.
 
 
This technical guide is composed of the following:
 
* [[Abbreviations and Acronyms]]
* '''Part 1, National Framework''', describes what and why, i.e., the approach the Forest Service will use to implement wilderness character monitoring nationwide, including definitions and key concepts.
 
# [[Wilderness Character Monitoring in the Forest Service]]
# [[Untrammeled Quality]]
# [[Natural Quality]]
# [[Undeveloped Quality]]
# [[Solitude or Primitive and Unconfined Recreation Quality]]
# [[Other Features of Value Quality]]
 
* '''Part 2, Monitoring Protocols''', describes how this monitoring will be implemented with detailed, step-by-step protocols.
 
# [[Monitoring Protocols|Overview]]
# [[Untrammeled Quality Indicators]]
# [[Natural Quality Indicators]]
# [[Undeveloped Quality Indicators]]
# [[Solitude or Primitive and Unconfined Recreation Quality Indicators]]
# [[Other Features of Value Quality Indicators]]
 
* [[Glossary]]
* [[References]]
* Appendices
# [[Summary of Key Implementation Attributes for All the Measures in Each Quality]]
# [[Measures Considered But Not Used]]
 
 
Implementing wilderness character monitoring does not guarantee the preservation of
wilderness character, but it informs and helps improve wilderness stewardship by ensuring
that Forest Service line officers and managers are accountable to the central mandate of the
Wilderness Act—to preserve wilderness character.

Revision as of 19:35, 3 March 2023

These pages contain corrected and annotated versions of documentation mostly to do with 'wilderness character' in the United States. So far we have:

USFS Wilderness Character Monitoring Technical Guide

Eventually we will have it all. Promises promises.