2021 NPS Wilderness Report

This webpage, in full, comprises the 2021 NPS Wilderness Report. Click on the chapters below to expand and view corresponding text.

2021 NPS Wilderness Report Photo Collage.

NPS/Adam Pettee, NPS/Neal Herbert, NPS/Quinn Brett, NPS/Jeff Rose, NPS/Jane Gamble

Purpose of National Park Service (NPS) Wilderness

From National Park Service Management Policies 2006 - Chapter 6: Wilderness Preservation and Management:

The National Park Service will manage wilderness areas for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such a manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness. Management will include the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness. The purpose of wilderness in the national parks includes the preservation of wilderness character and wilderness resources in an unimpaired condition and, in accordance with the Wilderness Act, wilderness areas shall be devoted to the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use.

Message from the NPS National Wilderness Stewardship Program Manager

I am pleased to introduce the 2021 National Park Service (NPS) Wilderness Report which summarizes annual accomplishments, initiatives, and the status of wilderness stewardship in the NPS. This report is produced annually in accordance with Director’s Order 41. 

The accomplishments and initiatives this report references were made possible through the leadership and dedication provided by the Visitor and Resource Protection Directorate, Wilderness Stewardship Division, regional and park wilderness coordinators and practitioners, and the National Wilderness Leadership Council. 

The NPS is very fortunate to have many highly dedicated wilderness stewards. Each year we recognize our wilderness champions through the Wes Henry “Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship” Awards. I am honored to congratulate the following recipients, who were recognized in August 2021 during an awards ceremony sponsored by the National Park Foundation:  

• Mark Fincher, Yosemite National Park – Individual recipient 

• Buffalo National River Wilderness Stewardship Team – Team/Group recipient 

• Jerry Goller, Buffalo National River – External Partner/Volunteer recipient 

During the National Wilderness Leadership Council’s annual meeting in 2021, council members identified the following issues of importance:  

• Effects of climate change on the Natural Quality of wilderness character 

• Addressing wilderness in park planning documents and NEPA analysis 

• Effects of increasing wilderness visitation, changing wilderness visitor demographics, and emerging trends in wilderness recreation 

• Communicating the benefits of wilderness 

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion in wilderness 

I believe wilderness managers must apply an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to address these issues as we move forward in 2022 and beyond. 

I’ll close by thanking all NPS wilderness practitioners for your service and commitment to wilderness stewardship. I encourage each of you to reach out to a colleague or friend who has not had the opportunity to experience wilderness, to help open their hearts and minds to the wonders and benefits NPS wilderness offers. 

Sincerely, 
Roger L. Semler

2020 NPS Director's Wes Henry Wilderness Awards

2020 Director's Wes Henry Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Award Recipients include Mark Fincher (upper left pictured with Yosemite National Park Superintendent Cicely Muldoon), Jerry Goller (upper right), and the team at Buffalo National River (lower two rows). NPS photo.

The Director's Wes Henry “Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship” Awards are the agency’s annual recognition of outstanding contributions to wilderness stewardship by an individual, team/group, and non-governmental partner, including any program or discipline that influences the preservation of wilderness character int he NPS. Award recipients are nominated by fellow NPS staff and selected by an interdisciplinary panel established through the National Wilderness Leadership Council. The following award recipients were recognized during a virtual awards ceremony hosted by the National Parks Foundation in August 2021.

2020 Individual Award: Mark Fincher

Mark Fincher, Wilderness Specialist at Yosemite National Park, has been and is one of the most dedicated and professional wilderness stewards in the National Park Service and in the National Wilderness Preservation System. In the last 20+ years of working in the Yosemite Wilderness, Mark has been a patrol ranger and climbing ranger, and has served as the park’s Wilderness Specialist for 17 of those years. He defines the standard for personal excellence in wilderness stewardship by intimately knowing the Wilderness Act and subsequent related legislation and engaging in deep thinking about wilderness philosophy and its application in preserving wilderness character. He is an ardent protector, avid reader and writer, and engaged educator about wilderness.  

Working directly with park managers and planners on a daily basis, Mark communicates in a highly effective manner on issues dealing with wilderness policy and administration. He consistently and reliably prepares for defense of wilderness issues, researching existing laws, case laws, court opinions, and policy. This was particularly evident during the preliminary stages of the Yosemite Wilderness Stewardship Plan development. Mark was instrumental in thinking through and developing the Extent Necessary Determination ideas for the Tuolumne and Merced River Plans as well as the Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan. The latter put in place the critical day use permit system and daily use quotas that allow for access to the summit of Half Dome while protecting Yosemite’s wilderness character.  Mark’s command of wilderness law and policy has led to better understanding of the value of wilderness by park personnel at all levels. Though the development of Minimum Requirement Analyses (MRA) is a shared responsibility of numerous staff throughout the NPS, Mark is one of the best in ensuring quality MRAs are thoughtfully and thoroughly developed. Mark has also served as a subject matter expert on an interagency work group established in 2020 charged with developing a new and improved worksheet and instructions for the Minimum Requirements Decision Guide. This initiative aims to provide a more user-friendly guide to support the preparation of professional and legally defensible MRAs for all federal wilderness management agencies.  

His ability to offer practical and informed recommendations for resolving on-the-ground management issues inspires others as they take his ideas and adapt them for use in their respective wilderness areas. Mark has worked hard to build collaboration and partnership across the Sierras to address wilderness issues in a holistic and consistent manner that affect multiple agencies and includes the Pacific Crest Trail and John Muir Trail. His presentation to the Access Fund stewardship group received the comment from them that, “It was truly a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet and hear you speak to Wilderness, what it means for the park, the implications in management challenges and the relationship to climbing.” One couple stated that hearing Mark’s insight about wilderness and climbing gave them valuable perspective in looking at things from new angles. Mark is also a training instructor for several courses hosted by the interagency Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, including the Regional Wilderness Stewardship Training, and the National Wilderness Leadership Training, where he co-teaches the “Preserve Wildness and Natural Conditions” session.  

Mark’s body of work as a wilderness steward before, during, and after 2020 serve as an inspiration to all NPS wilderness practitioners and make him highly worthy of this special recognition. 

2020 Team Award: Buffalo National River Wilderness Stewardship Team

The Buffalo National River Wilderness Stewardship Team has worked collaboratively across disciplines to help ensure the preservation of wilderness character while offering unique opportunities for the pubic to connect with the park’s 36,000-acre Buffalo River Wilderness. In particular, Wilderness Ranger Lauren Ray’s commitment to fostering wilderness stewardship through education and outreach was contagious and ignited a movement embraced by all park staff and stakeholders.

In 2020, Buffalo National River was designated as a Leave No Trace Gold Standard Site, joining an elite group of 12 NPS units nationwide to earn this honor. Ray’s unique style of incorporating humor into her public outreach has yielded a series of very popular and well-received Leave No Trace interpretive videos that help to promote positive stewardship ethics. Ray spearheaded an initiative with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics to develop a ‘citizen science application’ intended to implement the monitoring strategies identified in the park’s Boxley Management Plan. This effort will enable the public to gather data as they walk wilderness trails, recording trail width and depth, trail braiding, and visitor encounters. To further help grow wilderness awareness, the park’s 2020 award-winning Unigrid brochure specifically describes wilderness values and visually displays the three wilderness units via contrasting colors.  

Seasonal Ranger Lindsay Martindale merged her passion for rock climbing with her wilderness character monitoring experience to document the increase in unauthorized climbing in the Ponca Unit of the wilderness area. Martindale developed proposed language for the Superintendent’s Compendium with recommendations to better communicate climbing restrictions, improve visitor safety, and preserve wilderness character, and the park’s Resource Management Team is now considering a potential Climbing Management Plan. 

The park’s Fire Program continued its long-term efforts to restore the Natural Quality of wilderness character, using prescribed fire to promote native species and restore glade and post-oak savannah within the wilderness. These operations are helping to slow the decline of Eastern Collared Lizards while reducing intensity of future wildfires on park and surrounding private land. Rangers have also mapped over 50 miles of social trails in the Lower Buffalo Unit of the wilderness to guide future park management decisions regarding wilderness management while simultaneously discouraging extensive social trailing. Lastly, rangers are proactively examining the nexus between search and rescue and wilderness character preservation by considering the minimum tool options that address safety and time-sensitivity challenges. The team’s wilderness stewardship achievements also included formal protection of the Frank and Eva Barnes “Granny” Henderson Farm and the Flowers Cabin by placing them on the National Register of Historic Places, and a Ranger-led trash recovery trip to the Cold Springs Schoolhouse, a popular hiking and horseback riding wilderness destination. This trip combined wilderness character monitoring and the removal of backpacks full of trash left behind by visitors. 

Together, the team engaged in innovative pathways to elevate wilderness stewardship internally across interdisciplinary programs and communicate the importance of wilderness to the public. By embodying the spirit of wilderness stewardship and teamwork, the team has inspired and sustained fulfilling connections to the Buffalo National River Wilderness for park staff, partners, and visitors.

2020 Non-Government Partner Award: Jerry Goller

2020 was an unprecedented year that, at times, made wilderness stewardship a real challenge. At Buffalo National River, trailheads and boat launches overflowed daily. Record use was documented in the park’s 11 established campgrounds. Backcountry and wilderness visitation soared. For many visitors, this was their first time exploring the outdoors beyond their own backyard. Perhaps more than ever before, visitors recognized the value of their public lands and wilderness. They heard “outstanding opportunities for solitude” and flocked to the wilderness to fill their prescription for social distance! They heard “unconfined recreation” and with elation escaped their homes and cities! Here was an opportunity to cultivate stewardship for a resource that was now serving as a refuge from the chronic dread and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Long-time Buffalo National River volunteer Jerry Goller, who had historically focused on campground hosting and trail maintenance, switched gears in 2020 after identifying a need for bolstered preventative search and rescue (PSAR) efforts in the Ponca Unit of the Buffalo National River Wilderness, an area that was hit particularly hard by COVID-19 increased visitation. In response to a surge in emergency calls on the river and trails in the wilderness, Jerry developed an idea to record time-lapse video footage of every stretch of the Buffalo River and the most popular hiking trails in order to prepare prospective visitors for the difficulty and technicality of the terrain. These videos were uploaded to the "Plan Your Visit" section of the BUFF website and to the park's social media platforms, like this footage of paddling from Kyles Landing to Erbie in the park, a popular stretch of the river. These videos not only provide prospective visitors with an invaluable tool for trip planning, but they also improve the accessibility of the wilderness experience for people with disabilities. And anybody with internet access can now get a better idea of the Buffalo National River Wilderness experience by virtually "paddling" or "hiking" via Jerry's videos. 

Jerry’s ability to adapt, identify emerging trends and challenges, and offer a practical tool to help resolve these challenges while simultaneously strengthening wilderness stewardship is commendable. His thoughtful work has several direct and indirect benefits to the Buffalo National River Wilderness, the people who enjoy this place, and the staff responsible for its management. 

Wilderness Stewardship

National Wilderness Leadership Council Updates

The NPS Wilderness Leadership Council (NWLC) serves an advisory council to the NPS Director on all matters pertaining to wilderness. Striving to enhance the agency’s ability to address critical wilderness stewardship issues, the NWLC maintained seven work groups in 2021:

• Climate Change and Wilderness - Developing strategies and guidance related to the effect of climate change in wilderness, with an emphasis on fire management in wilderness and the concepts of refugia and assisted migration. 
• Communicating the Benefits of Wilderness - Developing strategies and messages to promote the wide range of benefits provided by wilderness including social, experiential, and ecological benefits.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Wilderness - Developing strategies and messages for making wilderness more inclusive for all people.
• Minimum Requirement Analysis for Cultural Resource Projects in Wilderness - Identifying important considerations and providing helpful examples of minimum requirement analyses related to cultural resource projects.
• Nexus Between Minimum Requirement Analysis and NEPA - Updating guidance related to preparing NEPA documents for actions in wilderness and their interrelationship with Minimum Requirement Analyses. 
• Wilderness Stewardship Advocacy - Developing strategies and messages to enhance support, commitment, and accountability for wilderness stewardship at the servicewide level. 
• Programmatic Minimum Requirements Analysis – Developing guidance that will provide information on when to develop a programmatic minimum requirements analysis (pMRA), positive and negative aspects of a pMRA, and what makes the analyses effective.

The NWLC conducted their annual meeting virtually in late 2021. Facilitated by staff from the Denver Service Center’s Planning Division, this virtual meeting provided members with opportunities to share program and work group updates, discuss emerging topics in wilderness stewardship, and develop the 2022 annual work plan. See the 'Wilderness Leadership and Advisory Groups' Chapter below for more information about the NWLC.

Ongoing Developments for NPS Wilderness Policy

In 2021, the Wilderness Stewardship Division, in collaboration with the NWLC and several interdisciplinary work groups, continued the development of five topic-specific guidance documents. These documents, when finalized, will be included as level three policy in NPS Reference Manual 41: Wilderness Stewardship (RM41):

• Cultural Resources in Wilderness: Guidance for Considering and Managing Historic Structures in NPS Wilderness¹
• Guidelines for Evaluating Ecological Intervention Proposals in NPS Wilderness²
• NPS Wilderness Character Monitoring Technical Guide
• NPS Wilderness Interpretation and Education Strategy
• Authorization process for fixed anchors in NPS wilderness

^1&2At the time of this report's release (2022), this document is now finalized and included with RM41.

2021 Wilderness Character Interns

The Wilderness Stewardship Division partnered with the NPS Scientists-in-Parks Program (SIP) and the Regional Office for Regions 6/7/8 in 2021, hiring two interns to assist parks with their wilderness character integration efforts. The 20-week SIP Program provides NPS conservation experience and developmental opportunities for college students and recent graduates, culminating in eligibility for the Public Land Corps hiring authority. Yellowstone National Park received the help of Hannah Stelley, and Emily Brent worked with El Malpais National Monument. Interns worked closely with park staff to receive interdisciplinary input and data to inform the development of the park’s Wilderness Character Building Blocks Report. Both parks will continue this work into 2022.

Wilderness Stewardship Planning

A Wilderness Stewardship Plan is required of all wilderness parks to guide management actions to preserve wilderness character in accordance with Director's Order 41, Section 6.3. In 2021, five parks were engaged in wilderness stewardship planning efforts: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Channel Islands National Park, Everglades National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and Wupatki National Monument.

Improving Physical Wilderness Accessibility in Parks

Three NPS national programs worked together in 2021 to help parks assess trail specifications that may affect a user’s ability to successfully use the trail. Collaboration between the Wilderness Stewardship Division, Outdoor Recreation Program, and Accessibility Office paired subject matter expertise and use of a High Efficiency Trail Assessment Tool (HETAP) to host parks. Park trails staff and community partners were trained on use of the HETAP to begin measuring trails. Trail measurements generated by the HETAP bring parks up to speed on 2013 Outdoor Developed Area Trail Sign Standards and help more accurately communicate the specifications of trails on park signs and websites. Detailed trails information improves the trip planning/considerations process for all. This training was held at Rocky Mountain National Park in 2021, with more site visits planned for 2022.

Status of Wilderness in the NPS 

The NPS administers over 26 million acres of land that have been identified as eligible, proposed, and recommended wilderness. These other categories of wilderness are determined through processes outlined in Management Policies 2006, Section 6.2 but have not yet advanced through to the designation process. NPS wilderness stewardship policies require these lands to be managed to preserve wilderness character until wilderness legislation (or a decision to not designate lands) has been completed. Management decisions affecting these areas will be made in expectation of eventual wilderness designation. The other categories of wilderness are defined as follows:

• Eligible Wilderness = An area that possesses the qualities and character, as identified within the Wilderness Act, which would qualify it for designation within the National Wilderness Preservation System. An area where, based upon a wilderness eligibility assessment, the Director has approved the managerial determination of eligibility for wilderness designation and has published notice of eligibility in the Federal Register.
• Proposed Wilderness = The findings and conclusions of a formal wilderness study that have been submitted as the NPS proposal by the Director to the Department of the Interior, but has not been approved by the Secretary.
• Recommended Wilderness = An eligible wilderness area that has been studied and proposed by the NPS, recommended for wilderness designation by the Secretary to the President, and then transmitted by the President as his recommendation for wilderness designation to Congress.
• Potential Wilderness = Lands which possess wilderness characteristics which would normally qualify them for designation within the National Wilderness Preservation System but contain temporary nonconforming or incompatible conditions (such as structures or roads) or uses (such as in-holdings, valid mining claims or operations) which prevent their being immediately designated as wilderness. These lands may be identified as “potential wilderness” in NPS wilderness proposals, wilderness recommendations, and by Congress in legislation designating other portions of a park as wilderness. Designated potential wilderness should be converted to designated wilderness once the non-conforming uses have been extinguished by publishing a notice in the Federal Register.

Pie chart of NPS acres split into wilderness and non-wilderness categories.

Backcountry and Wilderness Permit Updates

Backcountry and wilderness permits have long been one of the most important tools to manage visitor carrying capacity and use allocations and administer public access to backcountry and wilderness recreational opportunities and experiences. Backcountry and wilderness permits also provide a means to disseminate important information to park visitors regarding public health and safety, preventative search and rescue, Leave No Trace outdoor ethics, and important public use and resource protection regulations. The information collected from the public during the permitting process is subject to review and approval by the Office of Management and Budget. In 2021, revisions to the Form 10-404 (Backcountry/Wilderness Permit Application), Form 10-404AK (Backcountry/Wilderness Permit Application for Alaska), and Form 10-404A (Hangtag Permit) were approved by the Office of Managemeent and Budget (OMB). These updated forms are available on the NPS Wilderness Stewardship Program Intranet Site.

Updates Made to Interagency Minimum Requirements Decision Guide

A work group established through the Interagency Wilderness Steering Committee initiated a review of the Minimum Requirements Decision Guide (MRDG) in 2021, with the objective of updating the instructions and providing a more user-friendly worksheet with improved instructions. Completion of the updated version, to be known as the Minimum Requirements Framework (MRAF), is expected in 2022. While not required by NPS policy, the MRAF will provide a convenient tool that can help wilderness managers complete thorough and legally defensible minimum requirements analyses.

Interagency Wilderness Research

The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute (ALWRI) is an interagency, national research facility located on campus at the University of Montana. Administered by the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), ALWRI is the only federal research group in the United States dedicated to development and dissemination of knowledge needed steward the 110-million-acre National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). ALWRI has a long history of conducting and sharing science in support of the NWPS, as well as collaborating with management, academic, non-profit, tribal, community, and other partners within the US and internationally.

In addition to being administered by the RMRS, ALWRI’s work is responsive to the Interagency Wilderness Policy Council. This collaboration, defined by an interagency agreement with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and US Geological Survey, and facilitated through the Interagency Wilderness Steering Committee, helps to ensure ALWRI’s work is relevant to federal wilderness managers. In 2021, ALWRI initiated and continued several multi-year research projects including:

• Visitor use management literature reviews and survey development to address issues shared across national park units (e.g. protecting opportunities for solitude), as well as context-specific planning needs (e.g., effective implementation of a visitor permit system).
• Research to support management of the Pacific Crest Trail via a travel pattern analysis. This project includes a travel pattern and wilderness study focused within the Yosemite Wilderness.
• Research focused on amenity development (e.g., changes per capita income, changes in regional tax revenues) to improve understanding of how wilderness, and the associated migration of people to the area for outdoor amenities, leads to social and economic development in gateway communities. A manuscript on the study was submitted for publication, and after major revisions will be resubmitted to the peer-reviewed journal.

Other topics included wildland fire and social/ecological values of fire, wilderness stewardship within larger ecological and social systems, and delivery and application of scientific knowledge and tools.

Wilderness Training and Development

Webinars Hosted by the Wilderness Stewardship Division

In lieu of in-person trainings, the Wilderness Stewardship Division (WSD) partnered with the Stephen Mather Training Center for a two-part webinar series in 2021. As part of the larger NPS Visitor and Resource Protection Directorate’s Superintendents Virtual Training Series, these wilderness webinars focused on describing the mechanics of wilderness stewardship in the NPS.

Part one of this series, ‘Wilderness Stewardship Law, Policy, Planning, and Operations’ situated the role of the Wilderness Stewardship Division within the broader landscape of NPS national offices and programs. This webinar highlighted law and policy that applies to all NPS wilderness areas and support programs, toured the interagency Wilderness Connect website, introduced the interagency Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center and Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, and shared nationally developed resources to help connect wilderness staff in all levels of the NPS with the information needed for effective and efficient wilderness stewardship.

Part two of the series, ‘Preservation of Wilderness Character’ emphasized the role of wilderness character preservation in overall wilderness stewardship. Definitions and concepts explaining the tangible and intangible qualities of wilderness character were provided, as well as an overview of the NPS Wilderness Character Building Blocks, which serve as a discrete means of recognizing, documenting, and tracking changes in wilderness character over time.

Each webinar was offered two times in 2021 to more than 200 virtual participants, including park superintendents, interdisciplinary park staff, and regional and national program staff.

Wilderness Training for US Border Patrol

Cooperation between the US Border Patrol and NPS has been ongoing for many years. This partnership includes providing wilderness training at the Public Lands Liaisons Agent annual meeting which was held in Spokane, WA in September 2021. US Border Patrol participants in the 2021 training included agents from all 20 sectors and national offices. Agents use this information to do place-based training at their offices and advise agents on how to respect and protect wilderness while fulfilling their mission to protect the border.

Collaboration with the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center

The interagency Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center (Carhart) provides a variety of interagency wilderness trainings, including face-to-face classroom instruction, online courses, blended learning opportunities, and webinars. Tim Devine, NPS Wilderness Stewardship Division - Branch Chief for Training and Development, is stationed at Carhart in Missoula, MT and serves as the NPS representative at Carhart. A variety of training opportunities and resources are available on Wilderness Connect.

Interagency Trainings

Due to COVID-19, Carhart was not able to offer any in-person classroom training, and instead offered several virtual training courses to help address wilderness stewardship throughout the interagency National Wilderness Preservation System. In 2021, Carhart provided:

• Two virtual ‘Wilderness Stewardship for Practitioners’ courses (April and September 2021)

• One virtual ‘National Wilderness Leadership for Managers’ course (June 2021)
• One ‘Are we losing quiet spaces and natural places?’ webinar

Wilderness Blended Learning Opportunities

The Carhart Center offers 38 online courses from individual courses such as the Wilderness Act of 1964 and wilderness planning to suites of courses in Natural Resources and Visitor Use Management. 249 NPS staff took advantage of a variety of these online opportunities in 2021.

One new online course, ‘Wilderness Character,’ was developed and launched in 2021. This course focuses on preserving wilderness character, the primary mandate of the Wilderness Act with further guidance provided in agency policy. Wilderness character is our way of putting language to these unique and important places by describing what is meaningful and beneficial about them. This course provides the definition of wilderness character, including its qualities and what degrades them, the basics of why we preserve wilderness character, and how to integrate wilderness character into planning, monitoring, management, operations, and more.

The Wilderness Management Distance Education Program (WMDEP) is offered by the University of Montana in partnership with the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center. WMDEP offers the only accredited undergraduate and graduate Certificates university courses for a comprehensive study of wilderness management in the country. WMDEP is a valuable tool for understanding the wilderness resource and the issues surrounding its management-includes topics from philosophy and ecology to recreation and planning. A total of 18 NPS staff completed WMDEP courses in 2021.

Wilderness Internal and External Communications

Examining Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Wilderness

The NPS Wilderness Stewardship Program continued to support servicewide conversations related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in NPS wilderness. The NPS National Wilderness Leadership Council’s DEI work group continued in 2021, participating in virtual trainings and discussing both longstanding and emerging DEI challenges. The Wilderness Stewardship Division facilitated reviews of NPS.gov/wilderness, identifying areas for improved communications that better represent a diverse suite of experiences, values, and imagery. The Alaska Region’s Backcountry and Wilderness Advisory Group hosted a webinar and discussion on ‘Wilderness and Traditional Indigenous Beliefs: Conflicting or Intersecting Perspectives on the Human-Nature Relationship?’ And many wilderness parks assessed DEI topics through the lens of their specific wilderness and park history (see below for an example from Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve). The NPS Wilderness Stewardship Program recognizes that much work remains to ensure wilderness reflects the broad spectrum of experiences, connections, and identities of our country and world, and is committed to continuing this work in 2022 and beyond.

Integrating Wilderness into 2021 Servicewide Communication Themes

Throughout the year, the NPS Office of Communication identifies a monthly theme for which parks and support programs are encouraged to develop outreach content. In 2021, these themes addressed many topics, from Connected Conservation (April) to Hispanic Heritage (September). The Wilderness Stewardship Division worked with the Office of Communications and Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate to integrate wilderness messaging into some the monthly or day-specific themes, including National Park Week, Earth Day (with an emphasis on climate change), Connected Conservation Month, National Public Lands Day, National Wilderness Month, and Explore Nature’s weekly social media themes. Content was posted on NPS.gov park and subject websites and NPS social media accounts.

National Wilderness Month is Proclaimed in September

September 3, 2021 marked the 57th anniversary of the Wildeness Act. Accordingly, President Biden proclaimed September 2021 as National Wilderness Month, stating, “During National Wilderness Month, let us strengthen our connection to the American wilderness areas, support their designation and protection, and work to preserve the stories they tell, the memories they create, and the heritage they reflect for all Americans for generations to come.” To celebrate National Wilderness Month, the Wilderness Stewardship Division developed communications guidance to help parks, regional offices, and support programs celebrate wilderness throughout September, organized around four communication themes:

• Wilderness in the NPS
• The Public Purposes of Wilderness
• What is Wilderness Character?
• The Interagency National Wilderness Preservation System

Parks used this guidance to develop meaningful wilderness-related outreach. For example, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve created the web article ‘Glacier Bay Wilderness as Homeland’ to be shared on the park’s website. This article celebrates the enduring connection shared between the Huna Tlingit people and lands and waters now managed as the Glacier Bay Wilderness.

The Wilderness Stewardship Division also hosted the ‘NPS Women in Wilderness’ virtual panel, comprised of 12 self-identified women that work for the NPS. Panelists, representing a variety of geographies and disciplines, discussed their personal and professional connections to wilderness. Together the panel reflected on the past 57 years since the Wilderness Act was established and what wilderness means today.

Collaboration on Leave No Trace Social Media Mini Campaign

With near record-setting visitation returning to national parks and wilderness areas by summer, the principles of Leave No Trace remained hugely relevant in 2021. Giving new life to these established principles, the Wilderness Stewardship Division partnered with the NPS Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate to host a Leave No Trace ‘mini campaign’ on the NPS Explore Nature’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. For seven weeks in the summer of 2021, posts to the three NPS Explore Nature accounts showcased affirming behavior and practices that embraced each principle while promoting personal, meaningful connections to wilderness areas, backcountry areas, and front country areas in national parks. Positive, proactive messaging was intentionally used in hopes of simultaneously encouraging recreation in national parks and celebrating the opportunities rather than the limitations posed by Leave No Trace.

Regional Wilderness Highlights

All 12 of the Department of Interior (DOI) unified regions have NPS wilderness areas. Clustered regions have an identified Regional Wilderness Coordinator that works closely with wilderness park staff and the WSD. The following are 2021 highlights from each regional cluster:

DOI Unified Region 1

With almost 25 million people living within a four-hour radius of Shenandoah National Park, Old Rag Mountain is one of the park’s most popular hiking destinations and is entirely within the Shenandoah Wilderness. A visitor use study of the area was conducted in 2020, where issues of overcrowding and congestion emerged as top concerns. On weekends and other high use times, hikers could encounter wait times of more than an hour at various trail pinch points, causing major back-ups referred to as ‘the conga line.’ These lines resulted in low visitor experience satisfaction, increased resource damage caused by social trailing, and additional safety concerns. Park staff were posed with a distinct and increasingly common management challenge: how to balance visitor access (and different experiential expectations) to Old Rag while protecting resources and preserving wilderness character? In 2021, the park conducted civic engagement to further understand the varying user perspectives of this area and began planning for a pilot ‘Old Rag Day Use Ticket Area.’ This pilot ticketing program, hosted on recreation.gov, will address trail congestion concerns by limiting the area to 800 users per day (no timed entry) and tickets will cost just $1 to help offset operational expenses. Park staff recognize issuing tickets for access may limit the opportunity for a primitive and unconfined recreational experience in the Shenandoah Wilderness, but hopes these limitations are balanced with increased opportunities to experience solitude, alongside improved resource protection and visitor safety. The pilot will begin in March 2022 and run through November 2022, at which time the park will assess monitoring data and user feedback to determine how to proceed.  

DOI Unified Region 2

In 2021, Big Cypress National Preserve resumed work on a wilderness study of the so-called “original preserve,” an area of almost 581,000 acres protected by Congress in 1974. The original preserve is characterized by extensive stretches of cypress scrub, cypress strands and domes, pine flatwoods, and marl prairies. A wilderness eligibility assessment completed in 2015 found that 188,323 acres (about 32% of the original preserve) are eligible for designation as wilderness. The current wilderness study will result in a formal proposal for designating wilderness in the original preserve. Proposed wilderness in the original preserve will complement the 47,182 acres in the Big Cypress Addition that were proposed for wilderness designation in 2010.

In 2021, Congaree National Park began experimenting with a new programmatic minimum requirements analysis framework for routine trail clearing and bridge maintenance in wilderness. The framework employs a weighted matrix that maintenance personnel must complete for a given project before beginning work. The matrix asks for information on such things as the weight of materials to be carried into the wilderness, the distance of the project site from the trailhead, and related information. Depending on the information provided, the matrix identifies the minimum permissible tool and the required level of management approval (ranging from the wilderness coordinator to the superintendent) needed to proceed. It is hoped that the matrix is sufficiently user friendly that it will be used regularly, generating necessary data for the park’s wilderness character monitoring efforts. 

DOI Unified Regions 3/4/5

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore created an interdisciplinary wilderness team in 2021 to collaboratively address wilderness stewardship issues in routine operations and bigger picture planning efforts. The Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness, designated in 2014, comprises about 45 percent of the entire lakeshore, protecting shorelines, islands, dunes, and inland waters. As staff look ahead to future wilderness stewardship efforts, their new wilderness team will help ensure a holistic approach is implemented to best address the unique challenges and opportunities inherent to managing wilderness.

DOI Unified Regions 6/7/8

2021 was a year of accomplishments and positive change for Glacier National Park’s recommended wilderness. The park completed their baseline assessment for wilderness character monitoring in 2021 with great help from the Wilderness Stewardship Division. They initiated monitoring for all the trammeling actions, motorized/mechanical use, and installations inside the park’s recommended wilderness. They also used the data from the baseline assessment to map threats to wilderness character following the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute's guidelines. And for the first time in park history, the Belly River Ranger Station was operated by two female wilderness rangers. The park also trained many of their wilderness rangers to be Leave No Trace Instructors and certified crosscut sawyers. 

Regional Wilderness Executive Committee

The Regional Wilderness Executive Committee (WEC) for DOI Regions 6, 7, and 8 support the preservation and protection of wilderness areas and wilderness character within the region. The WEC selected four new members in 2021 representing a diversity of parks, programs, and backgrounds. New members include the Visitor and Resource Protection Representative (Brett Stone, Rocky Mountain National Park), Park Wilderness Coordinator Representative (Tyra Olstad, Bryce Canyon National Park), Cultural Resource Stewardship Representative (Tom James, Yellowstone National Park), and the Commercial Services/Concessions Representative (Mitch Gerkenstorn, Regional Office). In 2021, two employees were nominated for and received awards for their wilderness stewardship efforts throughout 2020: Annette Werderich, 2020 Wilderness Champion Award, and Dr. Mike Medrano, 2020 Wilderness Stewardship and Management Award. Annette is Zion National Park’s Wilderness Permits Supervisor and has spent over a decade protecting and preserving wilderness values by ensuring the success of Zion’s many wilderness monitoring programs, and by advocating for permanent and career seasonal positions specifically for the Zion Wilderness. Mike is Guadalupe Mountain National Park’s Resource Stewardship and Science Manager and was instrumental in leading completion of the park’s Wilderness Character Building Blocks. His efforts will aid the park in completing a new Wilderness Stewardship Plan soon. 

DOI Unified Regions 8/9/10/12

In 2021, Mount Rainier National Park successfully rolled out the issuing of overnight wilderness permits on the recreation.gov platform. Recreation.gov implemented a new “Early Access Lottery” to meet the park’s need to manage demand for complex multi-day itineraries in the Mount Rainier Wilderness. In the past, reconciling permit requests for the popular Wonderland Trail with available quota was a staff and time-intensive process. The new lottery reduces head-to-head competition for quota and puts visitors in control of their itineraries without reducing the quality or number of possible trips that would otherwise occur with a general release. The lottery is now in development for use at several other national parks.

Like Mount Rainier, Yosemite National Park also joined the recreation.gov platform to issue wilderness permits in 2021. The park’s wilderness team worked successfully with development engineers to configure the park’s high caliber local system onto recreation.gov’s national platform. As demand for wilderness permits nationally, and in Yosemite specifically has increased, the reservation system responded with a weekly lottery for applications to best provide equitable access to most the popular areas within the Yosemite Wilderness, as well as provide a range of alternatives for each application. Wilderness permits not reserved in the lottery are available for on-sale purchasing up until two days in advance of hiking, providing for a range of planning types, from six months in advance to more spontaneous trips. Adaptations to the system also included updating Donohue Pass (on the John Muir Trail) and Half Dome as part of the wilderness trip allocations. Yosemite joins its neighbors in the Sierra Nevada including Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks and the Inyo, Sierra, and Humboldt Toiyabe National Forests on recreation.gov with a common goal of continued and improved regional management across boundaries for each unit’s respective quotas and capacities. Reservations continue to be evaluated by the Yosemite Conservancy (YC) to ensure appropriate itineraries and use of the park’s permitting system. YC also staff the local call center--providing answers and support to visitors as local experts! 

DOI Unified Region 11

Denali National Park and Preserve was a tumultuous landscape during the summer of 2021: the Muldrow Glacier surged, the McKinley River flooded, and the Pretty Rocks landslide cleaved the Park Road from its precarious grip on Polychrome Mountain. Meanwhile, backpackers returned to the Denali Wilderness in pre-pandemic numbers as the good-natured crew of backcountry rangers helped set them up to make safe decisions and become devoted wilderness stewards. Amidst the backpackers and other visitors, the rangers were also able to accomplish numerous project objectives in the wilderness, including the removal of a grader tire from the Teklanika River. 

Social science gathered in 2017 and 2018 (Furr et. al. 2021) was published characterizing the range of Glacier Bay Wilderness experiences as a once-in-a-lifetime trip by people seeking Alaska wilderness experiences of solitude, natural sound, and renewal through connection to nature, along with adventure, learning, and experiencing glaciers. Whether as day visitors who spend on average 10 hours or overnight visitors spending an average of five days in the park, most visitors rapidly develop a strong emotional place attachment to Glacier Bay, and few leave disappointed. In open-response questions, wilderness visitors commented that wildlife, learning, and experiencing glaciers added the most to the experience. “Poor weather” rated as the top negative experience (14%) and 43% of visitors responded that “nothing” detracted from their experience. 

During the summer of 2021, an interdisciplinary team found and removed 85 of the 91 previously documented barrels and trash from the shores of Desperation and Feniak Lakes in Noatak National Preserve’s designated wilderness. The debris included old oil cans, tin cans, an outboard motor, and even an aerosol can of DDT. An archaeological monitor was on-site during the field operations to ensure minimal disturbance to archaeological sites that exist in the project areas, which consist of pre-contact village sites with house pits and artifacts and the only petroglyph known in Alaska’s NPS units. The barrels and older camp debris were likely associated with US Navy exploration between 1944 and 1953 in what is now the National Petroleum Reserve. Although some of the barrels and debris are historic, their locations were disturbed by lake ice and high-water events, so they were no longer in their historic context. Removal of the barrels and modern trash has protected the pre-contact cultural resources and restored the wilderness character of the area.

Alaska Backcountry and Wilderness Advisory Group

The Alaska Backcountry and Wilderness Advisory Group (BWAG) is a regional interdisciplinary team that advises on key wilderness stewardship issues across Alaska. Membership includes interdisciplinary representatives from all Alaska wilderness parks and regional office staff. In 2021, the BWAG supported parks developing Wilderness Character Building Blocks, promoted consistency between parks on day-to-day stewardship efforts, and fostered connections to wilderness lands in more inclusive ways.

Wilderness Leadership and Advisory Groups

NPS Wilderness Leadership Council

The NPS Wilderness Leadership Council (NWLC) serves an advisory council to the Director on all matters pertaining to wilderness. The council strives to enhance the agency’s ability to address critical wilderness stewardship issues. Comprised of park, regional, and national staff, this interdisciplinary council represents perspectives from a variety of positions and management levels. Each council member serves a three-year term, with staggered rotation occurring each year.

Members

Danguole Bockus (Ecologist - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park), Natalie Gates (Superintendent - Haleakala National Park), Mark Kinzer [Co-Chair] (Environmental Protection Specialist and Regional Wilderness Coordinator - Region 2), Tobias Miller (Roads and Trails Facility Manager - Great Smoky Mountains National Park), David Payer (Wildlife Biologist – Region 11), Shauna Potocky [Chair] (Education Strategist - WASO Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers Directorate), Mike Reynolds (Superintendent - Death Valley National Park), Jim Richardson (Superintendent - Lassen Volcanic National Park), David Smith (Superintendent - Joshua Tree National Park), Sally Sprouse (Chief Park Ranger - Capitol Reef National Park), Mark Sturm (Superintendent - Katmai National Park and Preserve), Jason Theuer (Cultural Resources Program Manager - Joshua Tree National Park), and Dan van der Elst (Wilderness District Ranger - Mount Rainier National Park).

Liaisons

Guy Adema (Deputy Associate Director - Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate), Wendy Berhman (Planner - Park Planning and Special Studies Division), Tim Devine (Wilderness Training and Development Specialist - Wilderness Stewardship Division and Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center), Susan Dolan (Cultural Landscapes Program Manager - Cultural Resources, Partnerships, and Science Directorate), Jennifer Flynn (Associate Director - Visitor and Resource Protection Directorate), Lindsay Gillham (Environmental Protection Specialist - Environmental Quality Division), Patrick Gregerson (Program Manager - Park Planning and Special Studies Division), Jay Lusher (Regional Fire Management Officer - Regions 6/7/8), Kerry Olson (Deputy Associate Director - Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers Directorate) Dan Pulver (Solicitor - Department of Interior), Roger Semler (Program Manager - Wilderness Stewardship Division), and Jason Taylor (Director - Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute).

Interagency Wilderness Steering Committee

The Interagency Wilderness Steering Committee (IWSC) works collaboratively to improve stewardship across the National Wilderness Preservation System. Comprised of wilderness program leads and USGS science/research support, the IWSC meets monthly to discuss high priority issues and initiatives for interagency wilderness stewardship.

Roster

John Dennis (NPS), Peter Keller [Chair] (BLM), Peter Mali (USFS), Nancy Roeper (USFWS), Roger Semler (NPS), Rudy Schuster (USGS), Jason Taylor (Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute), and Nancy Roeper (USFWS).

Interagency Wilderness Policy Council

The Interagency Wilderness Policy Council (IWPC) provides national-level wilderness guidance for federal agencies and is comprised of agency Associate/Assistant Directors. The IWPC meets periodically to identify common policy and guidance to be implemented across that National Wilderness Preservation System.

Roster

Guy Adema (NPS), Zachary Bowen (USGS), Katie Armstrong (USFS), Jen Flynn (NPS), Mark Lambrecht [Chair] (BLM), Cynthia Martinez (USFWS), and Shaun Sanchez (USFWS).

Appendix A: Organizational Chart for NPS Wilderness Stewardship Division

The Wilderness Stewardship Division (WSD) is one of seven divisions in the WASO Visitor and Resource Protection Directorate. The WSD assists the Director in implementing national wilderness policy and provides servicewide leadership and subject matter expertise in all aspects of wilderness stewardship and management, including wilderness law, policy, training, and communications.



Organizational chart for the National Park Service Wilderness Stewardship Division.

Appendix B: NPS Designated Wilderness Areas

Acreages cited reflect best available information based on NPS records. For some parks, wilderness acreages reference updated boundary mapping in GIS that may differ from acreages cited in the designating legislation.


 

Table listing acreages for each of the the 61 designated wilderness areas in the National Park Service.

National Park Unit	Wilderness Area	Acreage
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore	Gaylord Nelson Wilderness	33,500
Badlands National Park	Badlands Wilderness	64,144
Bandelier National Monument	Bandelier Wilderness	23,267
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park	Black Canyon of the Gunnison Wilderness	15,599
Buffalo National River	Buffalo National River Wilderness	34,933
Carlsbad Caverns National Park	Carlsbad Caverns Wilderness	33,125
Chiricahua National Monument	Chiricahua Wilderness	10,290
Congaree National Park	Congaree National Park Wilderness	21,700
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve	Craters of the Moon National Wilderness Area	43,243
Cumberland Island National Seashore	Cumberland Island Wilderness	9,907
Death Valley National Park	Death Valley Wilderness	3,190,455
Denali National Park and Preserve	Denali Wilderness	2,146,000
Devils Postpile National Monument	Ansel Adams Wilderness	747
Everglades National Park	Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness	1,296,500
Fire Island National Seashore	Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness	1,381
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve	Gates of the Arctic Wilderness	7,154,000
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve	Glacier Bay Wilderness	2,664,876
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve	Great Sand Dunes Wilderness	32,643
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve	Sangre de Cristo Wilderness	40,595
Guadalupe Mountains National Park	Guadalupe Mountains Wilderness	46,850
Gulf Islands National Seashore	Gulf Islands Wilderness	4,630
Haleakalā Wilderness	Haleakalā Wilderness	24,710
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park	Hawai'i Volcanoes Wilderness	123,100
Isle Royale National Park	Isle Royale Wilderness	132,018
Joshua Tree National Park	Joshua Tree Wilderness	595,364
Katmai National Park and Preserve	Katmai Wilderness	3,323,000
Kobuk Valley National Park	Kobuk Valley Wilderness	176,000
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve	Jay S. Hammond Wilderness	2,592,000
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Black Canyon Wilderness	17,220
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Bridge Canyon Wilderness	7,761
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Eldorado Wilderness	26,250
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Ireteba Peaks Wilderness	29,299
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Jimbilnan Wilderness	18,879
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Muddy Mountains Wilderness	3,521
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Nellis Wash Wilderness	16,423
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Pinto Valley Wilderness	39,173
Lake Mead National Recreation Area	Spirit Mountain Wilderness	32,913
Lassen Volcanic National Park	Lassen Volcanic Wilderness	79,061
Lava Beds National Monument	Lava Beds Wilderness	28,460
Mesa Verde National Park	Mesa Verde Wilderness	8,500
Mojave National Preserve	Mojave Wilderness	695,200
Mount Rainier National Park	Mount Rainier Wilderness	228,480
Noatak National Preserve	Noatak Wilderness	5,814,000
North Cascades National Park	Stephen Mather Wilderness	638,173
Olympic National Park	Daniel J. Evans Wilderness	876,447
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument	Organ Pipe Cactus Wilderness	312,600
Petrified Forest National Park	Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area	50,260
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore	Beaver Basin Wilderness	11,740
Pinnacles National Park	Hain Wilderness	15,985
Point Reyes National Seashore	Phillip Burton Wilderness	27,315
Rocky Mountain National Park	Indian Peaks Wilderness	2,959
Rocky Mountain National Park	Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness	249,126
Saguaro National Park	Saguaro Wilderness	70,905
Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks	John Krebs Wilderness	39,740
Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks	Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness	768,222
Shenandoah National Park	Shenandoah Wilderness	79,579
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore	Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness	32,557
Theodore Roosevelt National Park	Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness	29,920
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve	Wrangell-St. Elias Wilderness	9,432,000
Yosemite National Park	Yosemite Wilderness	704,624
Zion National Park	Zion Wilderness	124,406