Wild Space in an Urban Setting: Wilderness Building Blocks for Saguaro National Park

Engebretson, Jesse

This report consists of building blocks which provide a foundation for effectively integrating wilderness character into the management of the Saguaro Wilderness in Saguaro National Park. Its intention is to highlight the salient and unique components of the wilderness, determine their current condition, develop a shared understanding of their value and context and make recommendations for appropriate measures that can be monitored to assess changes in these components over time. Chapter One provides an overview of wilderness character and describes its importance to park managers. This chapter is based on content from Keeping it Wild: An interagency strategy to monitor trends in wilderness character across the National Wilderness Preservation System (Landres et al., 2008). Chapter Two is a qualitative description of what is unique about the Saguaro Wilderness, including the challenges managers face in managing an urban wild space, and how the wilderness fits into the larger story of the uniquely American wilderness idea. This chapter provides important context for understanding the specific measures described in the remainder of the report and is based informal interviews with park staff, coding and analysis of the Wilderness Stewardship Plan Scoping Meeting notes, and an overview of historical and planning documents. Chapters Three through Seven provide specific measurements that are intended to capture the unique nature of the Saguaro Wilderness and represent the five qualities of wilderness character outlined in Keeping it Wild. The goal of these chapters is to provide measures that are important to wilderness stewardship and that can be monitored yearly or every five years as a way to track wilderness quality over time. Data compiled in 2017 will be compared with baseline data collected in 2012 to determine the state of wilderness character at that time. This process is to be repeated every five years in order to track changes in wilderness character and to better understand the practical implications of park operations on the overall quality of the wilderness. The last chapter describes issues and opportunities related to wilderness character for park management to consider in future operations. It outlines simple steps, some unique to Saguaro, that park management can follow to better integrate wilderness character into decision making, public scoping, and the overall management of Saguaro’s unique wilderness.