2023 Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Award Recipients

What are the NPS Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Awards?

The National Park Service (NPS) Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Awards are the agency's annual recognition of outstanding contributions to wilderness stewardship by an individual, team, and external partner, including those involving interpretation and education; management of natural, cultural, and social resources; planning; protection; and maintenance operations. Award recipients are nominated by fellow NPS staff and selected by an interdisciplinary panel.

Want to learn more about NPS wilderness? Visit NPS.gov/wilderness

The 2023 Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Award recipients.

NPS

Award recipient Dan van der Elst.

NPS

Individual Award: Dan van der Elst

In 2023, Dan van der Elst was a leader in wilderness stewardship within Mount Rainier National Park, the Pacific West Region (Interior Regions 8/9/10/12), and across the NPS. At the park level, Dan serves as the Wilderness District Ranger where he has kept the effort to revise the national park’s Wilderness Stewardship Plan alive, working across multiple disciplines and continuing to refine the plan’s content. Specifically, Dan's knowledge about climbing management and how to navigate resource protection while allowing for responsible visitor use was crucial. His years of experiences as a ranger in the field were of great value in discussions with staff members removed from day-to-day interactions with guides and visitors.

At the regional level, Dan has been a regular and active participant in monthly wilderness community of practice calls, generous with his expertise while expressing genuine interest in learning from others in the region. Dan also instructed at the interagency regional wilderness stewardship training in Vancouver, WA.

At the national level, Dan completed his third year as the co-chair of the NPS National Wilderness Leadership Council and then volunteered to serve an additional year as the chair to provide continuity. In addition to being an effective organizer for the Council’s regular business, Dan led and participated in several interdisciplinary workgroups, including the research permits in wilderness and programmatic minimum requirement analysis work groups. Outside the Council, Dan has been a champion for wilderness access, challenging the Recreation One Stop Program to develop reservations systems that provide equitable access opportunities. Dan has taken the time to build meaningful relationships with stakeholders throughout the wilderness community. By using these connections, Dan was able to gather important knowledge about individual user groups, specific issues of concern, and recent data to inform discussions and provide NPS leadership with advice on wilderness issues.

Across all levels, Dan has encouraged respectful discussion of challenging issues, welcomed diverse voices, and built enthusiasm and pride in the wilderness stewardship portion of the NPS mission. It is for this approach, as much as his accomplishments, that he is richly deserving of recognition for excellence in wilderness stewardship.

Duration:

1 minute, 15 seconds

Dan van der Elst accepts the 2023 Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Individual Award.

Award recipients from Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (top) and the NPS Denver Service Center (bottom grid).

NPS

Team Award: Glacier Bay Interdisciplinary Backcountry and Wilderness Management Planning Team

In 2023, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, in collaboration with the NPS Denver Service Center and Alaska Regional Office, completed a Backcountry and Wilderness Management Plan (BWMP) and Environmental Assessment. This plan sets the framework for the NPS to manage the 2.6 million acres of designated wilderness lands and waters in the national park and outline strategies to respond to current and potential future changing visitor use patterns while providing broad guidance for both the terrestrial and marine wilderness areas.

The national park has extremely dynamic conditions including isostatic rebound, glacial retreat, sea level rise, and all the associated conditions that result from a landscape that changes annually. Therefore, the BWMP outlines a set of “management progressions” that provide clear guidance to future managers about which tools and strategies should be employed to respond to increases in visitor use, or other changing conditions, to ensure that wilderness character, as well as the fundamental resources and values of the national park, continue to be accessible and preserved.

Because of the dynamic nature of the landscape and human interactions with it, this project provided some unique challenges and tremendous opportunities to develop a backcountry and wilderness plan that approached these in a thoughtful and innovative way. A key component of this plan was seeking to both protect wilderness and recognize that the area is Homeland for Tlingit people. It is a sacred landscape that supports the enduring connection between past, present, and future generations of Tlingit who now live largely in nearby Hoonah and Yakutat. The planning team worked collaboratively with the Hoonah Indian Association and Yakutat Tlingit Tribe to revise past management approaches related to historic structures with a direct association to Tlingit people, limit visitor access to cave and karst formations, enhance visitors’ respect for Homeland, and recognize traditional territory in appropriate ways. 

It was also important to the planning team that the plan show, and not just tell, how integrated the Homeland values are to this wilderness. Each header to the plan is provided in English and Tlingit (including the literal translation of the Tlingit header). These headers serve as a consistent reminder that these areas are many things - they are Homeland, they are wilderness, and they are many other connections to many other people over time.

Combined, this commitment to inclusivity, alongside robust civic and Tribal engagement to gather input on the plan at multiple critical milestones, yielded a truly one-of-a-kind plan for stewarding wilderness at Glacier Bay.

Duration:

1 minute, 16 seconds

Staff from Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Denver Service Center, and the Alaska Regional Office accept the 2023 Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Team Award.

Award recipients from the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA).

PCTA

External Partner Award: Pacific Crest Trail Association

The Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) has been a long-standing partner in wilderness preservation in the Pacific West Region (Regions 8/9/10/12). They have worked closely with national parks and national forests in the Sierra Nevada to manage visitor impacts where the Pacific Crest Trail and John Muir Trail overlap. In 2023, the PCTA initiated and collaborated on several important projects to support interagency wilderness stewardship. From assisting with a two-day visitor use management workshop to meeting with NPS and US Forest Service staff to identify visitor use issues and collaborate on solutions to hiring a Southern Sierra regional representative, the PCTA has shown a consistent commitment to improving the visitor experience on this long-distance trail.

Further, the PCTA delivered timely, engaging, inclusive, and effective communications on travelling safely and minimizing wilderness impacts through multiple channels. This was especially important in a year with a persistent snowpack along much of the trail. PCTA also helped increase on-the-ground outreach and permit compliance for long distance hikers entering the High Sierra. Here, they adapted the southern terminus host and Crest Runner programs, augmenting agency staff with PCTA staff in targeted patrols in the Cottonwood Pass area. By contacting long distance hikers prior to entering the High Sierra early in the season (and prior to ranger mobilization), PCTA helped manage capacities and reduce wilderness character impacts from improper food storage, campfires, and poor campsite selection. They also provided important safety information, helping prevent emergencies that often negatively impact wilderness.

PCTA skillfully connects the NPS and the public, and has been an innovative and insightful partner in preserving wilderness character along the Pacific Crest Trail.

Duration:

1 minute, 14 seconds

The Pacific Crest Trail Association accepts the 2023 Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship External Partner Award.

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Want to watch the entire awards ceremony?

See the video below to learn more about all of the 2023 recipients for the servicewide NPS awards.

Duration:

1 hour, 22 minutes, 18 seconds

A recording of the 2024 Awards Ceremony for National Park Service Interpretation, Education, Volunteerism, Cooperating Association Partnerships, Wilderness Stewardship, Park Ranger, and Safety and Health awards.