Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute Priorities

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"The recreation value of wilderness has been often and ably presented, but its scientific value is as yet but dimly understood," --Aldo Leopold.

OUR PRIORITIES FOR WILDERNESS RESEARCH

The programs and priorities of the Leopold Institute are shaped by our core values of high quality, credibility, integrity, and responsiveness, and by our strengths in working with managers and other scientists to identify and explore complex, long-term natural and social resource issues related to wilderness stewardship. Our knowledge of wilderness legislation and policy provides a context that facilitates our role as a catalyst for synergistic, interdisciplinary research that addresses the myriad of contentious issues that wilderness managers confront. Given the diverse array of important research topics and the small staff of Leopold Institute scientists, we have tried to maintain a broad vision regarding research needs, while of necessity identifying a few critical research priorities to focus on. We have carefully considered the numerous threats that need investigation, as well as the importance of understanding wilderness in the context of larger ecological and social systems. From this perspective, we have worked with wilderness managers from the USFS and other partner agencies to establish priorities based on the overall importance of the issue together with the likelihood that we can make an effective contribution to knowledge. In particular, we intend to focus on developing and communicating the kinds of scientific information that are responsive to the long-term needs of wilderness managers and that fill gaps that other scientists are not working on.

In selecting the broad problem areas identified in this Program Charter we considered the following criteria: 1) the priority of wilderness management research and application needs as identified by wilderness managers, 2) whether similar or related work is being conducted elsewhere, and 3) the match between research needs and the expertise of current Leopold Institute staff. Together, these criteria have led us to identify five principal problem areas that will provide the focus for the Leopold Institute's research and application efforts over the next five years. These problems, when taken together, constitute a program of work that addresses many of the most pressing challenges of 21st Century wilderness stewardship; ranging from an expansion of our historical focus on recreation use and impacts to emerging issues related to the larger landscape context within which wilderness is located. Emphases on relationships between the public and wilderness lands and the delivery and application of science recognize the importance of human dimensions in the effective stewardship of wilderness. The five Problems we have selected to focus on are:

Inadequate understanding of recreation experiences and the impacts of recreation hamper efforts to preserve and protect wilderness resources and experiences.

Improved information is needed on how relationships between people and lands protected for their wilderness values affect and are affected by management policies and actions.

There is a need for improved information to guide the stewardship of fire as a natural process in wilderness while protecting social and ecological values inside and outside wilderness.

There is a lack of adequate understanding of how wilderness stewardship is influenced by the location of wilderness within larger ecological and social systems that extend beyond wilderness boundaries.

There is a need to improve the delivery and application of scientific knowledge and tools pertinent to wilderness stewardship.

These problem areas have been selected with the full recognition that there are many other important issues related to the understanding and management of wilderness that could and should form the basis for major research efforts. For example, landscape scale wildlife conservation; protection of air quality related values; and understanding the complexities of natural ecosystems in the light of the effects of human induced climatic and land use changes. Our role must be to fill the most significant information gaps that we can contribute to, while working to see that other needs are filled by coordinating with other experts to maximize the relevance of their work to wilderness.

Although our intent is to focus efforts on identified projects within the five problem areas, it must be recognized that limited base funding may influence what studies are actually conducted. Although we will actively pursue funds to support the proposed work, it is possible that the availability of project dollars will require some modification of priorities.

Leopold Institute Home > About Us > Our Priorities