Research to Support Wilderness Stewardship Planning at Olympic National Park

Park Studies Laboratory

A General Management Plan (GMP) for Olympic National Park was completed in 2008 and provides overall direction for park management for the foreseeable future. Moreover, the GMP allows formulation of more specific plans, including a wilderness stewardship plan. A wilderness stewardship plan is especially important at Olympic as approximately 95 percent of the park is designated wilderness under the provisions of the 1964 Wilderness Act. This wilderness planning effort should be informed by a program of research, including information from and about wilderness visitors. This report describes a study at Olympic National Park designed to help support formulation of a wilderness stewardship plan. The study was guided by the National Park Service's Visitor Experience and Resource Protection framework, a management-by-objectives approach that requires 1) formulation of management objectives and associated indicators and standards of quality for the wilderness experience, 2) monitoring of indicator variables, and 3) management actions designed to maintain standards of quality (National Park Service 1997; Manning 2001; Manning 2007). The study was designed to support all three elements of this framework by identifying potential indicators and standards of quality of the wilderness experience, using these indicator variables as the focus of a monitoring program, and measuring attitudes of wilderness visitors toward alternative management practices. In addition, baseline data were collected on the characteristics of wilderness visitors and wilderness use.

Research to Support Wilderness Stewardship Planning at Olympic National Park

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