Mapping wilderness character in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Tricker J, Landres P, Fauth G, Hardwick P, Eddy A. 2014. Mapping wilderness character in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SEKI/NRTR—2014/872. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The recent development of an interagency strategy to monitor wilderness character 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 trends in wilderness character. As most of these data depict spatial or geographic features in wilderness, a Geographic Information System (GIS) -based approach was developed to identify the state of wilderness character for the designated and proposed wilderness inside Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI). A set of indicators and measures was identified by SEKI staff to capture the impacts to the four qualities of wilderness character (natural, untrammeled, undeveloped and solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation). These measures were depicted using a variety of spatial datasets and were formatted to compare on a common relative scale. Each measure was “weighted” by SEKI staff to reflect its importance in relation to other measures. Maps were generated for each of the four qualities of wilderness character, which were added together to produce the composite wilderness character map for SEKI. The SEKI wilderness character map delineates the range in condition of wilderness character, based on the measures that were identified and the datasets that were used. A histogram of the wilderness character map values reveals that the majority of wilderness character in SEKI is of high quality. This map will be used as a baseline representing wilderness character condition in SEKI, and future assessments of wilderness character can be updated with new and improved data as they become available. In addition, the map will be used by SEKI staff to evaluate spatial impacts of different planning alternatives during the development of the SEKI Wilderness Stewardship Plan.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Tricker, James; Landres, Peter; Fauth, Gregg; Hardwick, Paul; Eddy, Alex
- Date of Issue
- 2014-05
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , SEKI
- Keywords
- Geographic Information System, GIS, impacts to wilderness character, Natural, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness, solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation, Travel Time Model, undeveloped, untrammeled, viewshed impacts, Wilderness, wilderness character, wilderness character map, wilderness character monitoring
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Human Use | Visitor and Recreation Use | Visitor Use