Mapping wilderness character in Denali National Park and Preserve: Final report

Burrows, Rob; Tricker, James; Abbe, Dan; Landres, Peter; Paynter, Jon; Schirokauer, David; Hooge, Philip

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 eligible wilderness in Denali National Park and Preserve (DENA). A set of indicators and measures was identified by DENA staff to capture the impacts to the five qualities of wilderness character (natural, untrammeled, undeveloped, solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation, and other features of value). 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 DENA staff to reflect its importance in relation to other measures. Maps were generated for each of the five qualities of wilderness character, which were added together to produce the composite wilderness character map for DENA. The DENA 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 DENA was determined to possess wilderness character whose qualities are relatively undiminished from optimal conditions. This map will be used as a baseline representing the existing conditions of each tangible quality of wilderness character in DENA, and future assessments of wilderness character can be updated with new and improved data as they become available. Therefore, future reruns of the map with updated datasets will allow for identifying areas where wilderness character is changing over time. Wilderness character within DENA is applied to both federally designated and eligible wilderness lands that include 99% of DENA.

Mapping wilderness character in Denali National Park and Preserve: Final report

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