WHAT ARE THE MEASURES USED TO MONITOR WILDERNESS CHARACTER?
There are currently 34 measures used to monitor wilderness character, although this number will likely be reduced somewhat after the results of pilot testing have been reviewed. The measures, indicators, monitoring questions, and qualities of wilderness character are structured hierarchically and shown in the Table that is linked below.
The following criteria were used in selecting the measures:
- Significant: the measure has value and meaning for the quality of wilderness character, it applies to at least 50% of all National Forest System wildernesses, and it has value and meaning nationally and to managers of an individual wilderness.
- Practical: data for the measure already exist within the Forest Service or are available from other national datasets, or the indicator is relatively inexpensive to monitor or does not cause a significant increase in workload or require significant funding and skill levels.
- Responsive: the measure responds to management actions, and change in the measure can be reasonably attributed to the effects of modern people or management actions (and is relatively free from environmental variation).
We tried to maximize application of all the criteria in choosing each measure, although feasibility criteria were generally given the most weight.  Giving feasibility more weight means that only a small number of measures were used for any given monitoring question. Applying these criteria also meant that some measures that might be expected to be monitored are not. For example, under the natural quality, tree mortality is monitored by the Forest Service's Forest Health Monitoring program but is not used in monitoring wilderness character because it isn't possible to ascribe tree mortality to the actions of modern people or the managers of a wilderness. Measures that were considered but ultimately dropped are shown in the table that is linked below.
In the Technical Guide, each measure is described by the following sections:
- Why is this measure important?
- What are the attributes of this measure?
- How will the data be collected?
- How complete are these data?
- How will the data be processed and analyzed?
- What are the cautions about this measure?
"Technical Guide for Monitoring Selected Conditions Related to Wilderness Character" will be available
Dec. 2006
For more information, please see the following:
Wilderness Character Monitoring:
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