Wilderness Manager Survey

1. Developed cooperatively between USGS, University of Idaho, WILD Foundation/SWS, The University of Georgia, FS Southern Research Station and Leopold Institute. Administered by the University of Georgia. Wilderness Manager Survey On-line – Distributed to NPS, BLM, FWS & FS Managers & Planners At local, regional (state) and national levels

3. Survey asked some agency demographics, open-ended question about challenges, and scale responses to threats, training and information needs, then Q11: “describe the two most important problems for the strategic plan” • 629 responses coded into 698 references across 30 descriptive categories

4. For simplification of presentation of results from Question 11: 15 of 30 response topics are broken into 3 major categories: Administrative – 221 responses Budget & Staff 107 Planning & Management 68 Agency Attitude 23 Conflicting demands/policies 23 Interagency Collaboration 5 Social – 240 responses Relevance 104 Visitor Management 67 Adjacent lands 40 Education 29 Access 18 Biophysical – 143 responses Climate Change 60 Invasives 25 Wildland Fire 16 Inventory & Monitoring 14 Fish & Wildlife Issues 10

5. Budget & Staff – “60% of respondents spent 20 percent or less of their time and effort on doing wilderness stewardship and planning related activities” • Build a dedicated Wilderness Stewardship staff whose focus is on Wilderness (not as a collateral duty) • Determine the importance of Wilderness Stewardship and then fund it appropriately • retirement of workforce and loss of knowledge, traditional skills, and sometimes positions

6. Planning & Management Policies – “Developing sound bases for wilderness planning decisions” • update wilderness plans • Collaborative and informed management planning between upper and lower management, the scientific community and general public • not all elements of wilderness character can be maximized simultaneously. Need tools for deciding if, when and how to favor one element over another (e.g. wildness vs naturalness) • We need to be willing to resist political pressures that compromise wilderness principles

7. Agency Attitude – “We've got a long way to go” • Lack of support, or any knowledge by leadership • Elevating Wilderness management with competing priorities • Better identifying and articulating the niche of BLM's wilderness areas/resources within the NWPS • lack of accountability for wilderness management within agencies

8. Conflicting Demands & Policies –”balancing human uses with preservation of wilderness qualities” • Balancing minimum tools with employee and volunteer safety • Balancing use with resource protection while maintaining public support for wilderness • visitor use capacity and conflicts • Addressing the untrammeled vs natural conditions issue • Conflict with illegal use

9. Interagency Collaboration • Collaborative planning efforts between multiple agencies to accomplish very similar tasks • Agencies need to pool resources, research, and lessons learned so we can be more efficient and effective in managing wilderness. • Agencies need to work together and with local and state governments to assure wilderness will be valued and maintained into the future • Need for dialogue among all managers

10. Relevance – “to an increasingly disconnected populace” • Expanding our circle of wilderness stewards beyond the government and wilderness groups. • communicating the need to preserve and protect the integrity of the wilderness act and designated wilderness • convincing the public of the value of these areas and what makes them different from parks, regular refuges, etc., • Adapt concept of "wilderness preservation" to modern multicultural society • Understand the needs and demographics of "non-traditional" wilderness users (i.e. urban, minority, youth) to develop a constituency of tomorrow's wilderness advocates • Why will Americans value and continue to support wilderness as fewer people visit and experience wilderness lands?

11. Visitor Use Management – “Impacts of Heavy or Excessive Public Use” • Management of Increasing and Changing Public Demands, • Encroaching urbanization and increasing pressures for recreational use of wilderness • Management of burgeoning population and impact on wilderness values • managing day use • Providing an intact wilderness despite all the future impacts with increased use, new technology and changes in visitor use

12. Adjacent Lands and External Uses • Management of Activities in and along wilderness boundaries • Lack of knowledge on how management actions in or near wilderness affect the ecological integrity of the wilderness • extractive activities that degrade sound, light, air, water, wildlife at nearby wilderness • Maintaining support from local, state and military to protect wilderness from their adjacent properties • maintaining wilderness character, especially untrammeled and natural values, in the face of large-scale stressors and threats emanating from outside wilderness areas

13. Education • Educating the public on what wilderness areas are and what things are allowed in them • Successful communication with user groups and potential partners • Education of Wilderness visitors on key Wilderness values (what is Wilderness, why Wilderness) • Educating workforce and the visiting and non-visiting public

14. Access – “appropriate or accepted access” • Preserving access and managing/reducing impact • Motorized access - from ATVs to drones and inbetween • Maintenance: Our trails are in a poor condition everywhere • Purity, I fear some of our areas may be loved to death, lottery style entry permits may become necessary • Visitor overuse and capacity - allocation decisions

15. Climate Change – “Climate Change” • determining the role of wilderness in a rapidly changing climate • Understand how climate change will move the needle of what are now considered "natural" conditions and when trammeling actions should and should not be taken • Actively manage, or just let nature take its course from human caused climate change? • Climate change and the unknown problems it will bring • Addressing the impacts from climate change, i.e. (drought, higher frequency and intensity of fires etc.) • Ensuring protection of cultural & natural resources in a climate change environment

16. Invasives - “Invasive species” • impacts of invasive species in relation to change to wilderness character • introduction/increase of invasive species and diseases • managing for resiliency in response to invasive species

17. Wildland Fire – “Fire Management” • Restoring fire into fire adapted ecosystems • the role of fire in wilderness • Negative effects to wildlife and native vegetation from exclusion of fire • How to use wildlife as an ecosystem tool (thinning and prescribed fire) in order to prevent catastrophic wildfire • Managing fire in wilderness -- proper role of prescribed fire, appropriate management response, restoring natural conditions following unnatural fire incidents

18. Inventory & Monitoring – “inventorying and monitoring” • Lack of quality baseline data • Need to have a staff member available to monitor the wilderness in order to be able to protect it • lack of visitor use monitoring • Managing visitor use and monitoring impacts from visitation • Developing a Wilderness Character Monitoring Program

19. Fish & Wildlife Issues • asserting federal control over issues such as wildlife management and access • Continue to balance active wildlife population management with maintaining wilderness quality • impacts from improper grazing (livestock, wild horses and wildlife) • Losing the commitment of our Fish and Wildlife Leaders to Wilderness • Wildlife crossover into Wildland Urban Interface

20. Question #6. Threats: High or very high (%) • Lack of political and financial support 76 90 FS • Invasive species 56 73 NPS • Disconnected urban audiences 56 • Adjacent land management and use 44 • Legislation designating wilderness with compromised wilderness conditions or special provisions for management 44 • Wildlandfire suppression and management 39 57 FS • Fragmentation and isolation of wilderness as ecological islands 38 • Motorized and mechanical equipment trespass and illegal use 38 • Aircraft noise and airspace reservations 37 19 BLM • Increasing or changing non-commercial recreation 36 • Air quality impacts 32 • Risk of wildfire damage (outside wilderness) originating in wilderness 32

21. Visitor use of advanced technology and electronic equipment for navigation or communication 30 • Disruption of wildlife corridors 29 • Energy development and resource extraction 28 • Urbanization and encroaching development 28 • Pressure on threatened and endangered species management26 • Increasing or changing commercial recreation 25 • Administrative access, facilities, or other administrative exceptions 23 • Water quality impacts 23 • Water projects and facilities 20 • Livestock grazing 18 • Sea level rise; coastal erosion 17 • Private inholdings and their uses 15

22. Training Needs (Q7): Level of need for manager training during the next 20 years by percentage of respondents indicating “high” or “very high”: • Wilderness history, law, regulation and policy 58 • Wilderness planning 58 • Management skills related to communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and organizational management 57 • Visitor use management and monitoring 56 • Natural and cultural resources management and monitoring 51 • Wilderness field skills 44 • Managing special provisions 38

23. Question 9. Adequacy and availability of science-based information by percentage of respondents . Percentage “not adequate” or only “somewhat adequate”

24. Temporary access to more detailed results on the Leopold Institute site at Wilderness.nethttp://leopold.wilderness.net/staff.watson.htm(Leopold Institute/Staff/Alan Watson) • Question 11 results summary • Questions 6, 7 & 9 results tables • Science team’s PowerPoint presentation today