Other Features of Wilderness Character
January 2013 Carhart 5th Quality Webinar Series Sandee Dingman
[email protected]
Outline • Share some examples of other features of wilderness character • Describe their utility in wilderness planning by sharing a case study • Explore some of the relationships within and between “other features” and other qualities of wilderness character • Provide some suggestions for defining other features that contribute to wilderness character
Focus on Features • Ecological and geological values are covered in the Natural Quality or they include features otherwise addressed in the 5th quality. • Focus on “….features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.”
Examples of Features of Educational Value
Dad explains grinding slicks to young sons at Bridge Canyon Wilderness, Lake Mead NRA Photo by S. Dingman
• Cultural or natural objects that convey primary interpretive themes • Opportunities for experiential learning • Formal or informal
Examples of Features of Scenic Value
Mount McKinley from Wonder Lake, Denali Wilderness Denali National Park NPS Photo
• Iconic views • Place-defining features • Integral vistas (as airquality related values) • As defined by Visual Resource Management protocols
Examples of Features of Historical Value
Petroglyphs in Bridge Canyon Wilderness, Lake Mead NRA Photo by P. Landres
• Tangible evidence of past human relationships to the land • Intangible past or present relationships to the land
Examples of Features of Scientific Value • Type specimen localities • Location of major scientific finds • Rare opportunity to study natural processes • Place-dependent Paleontologists work in the Badlands Wilderness, Badlands National Park Photos by South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Benefits of including Other Features in Wilderness Character Case Study: Copper Canyon Fossil Site, Death Valley
unconfined recreation
scientific features
Copper Canyon Case Study • This canyon was closed to visitor access decades ago by order of the Superintendent to protect rare fossil trackways of great scientific value. • Recent Wilderness and Backcountry Stewardship Plan was asked to consider this public use closure through the lens of wilderness character.
Mastadon-like tracks NPS photo
Copper and Coffin Cyns NPS photo Closure sign at Copper Cyn. NPS photo
Analysis of Wilderness Character at Copper Canyon Public use closure degrades the primitive and unconfined recreation quality of wilderness character Evaluated the paleo resources and determined that they were scientific features that contribute to wilderness character based on their scientific significance and legal intent of the California Desert Protection Act.
Decision: Chose to reconfigure and maintain closure to protect the scientific features of wilderness character with the understanding that it still degrades solitude (unconfined recreation) quality but preserves other features.
Overlap between Other Features Many features of scenic, scientific, educational, or historical value may fit more than one category or may enhance or be related to other categories Scenic
Educational
Historical
Scientific
Most scientific features also have educational value.
Student scholar working at fossil locality in Dinosaur National Monument. NPS Photo Geology field trip to Permian Reef in Guadalupe Wilderness at Guadalupe Mountains NP NPS Photo
Many scenic features may also have cultural value
In the recommended wilderness of Glacier National Park, Ninastako (Chief Mountain) is the home of Ksiistsikomm (Thunder). This is where raven fought with Thunder and where Thunder gave his pipe to the Blackfeet people. NPS photo.
Some scenic features also have scientific value
These are many of the “text book” illustrations of geologic processes that are also iconic photographic subjects
Some historical features also have scientific value
Historic mine sites at Death Valley National Park Wilderness exemplify the evolution of mining technology. Photo by Charlie Callagan
Puebloan sites, such as this one a Bandalier Wilderness, provide opportunities to study historical climatology and ecology.
Challenges Not everything fits neatly together and there can be tensions between “Other Features” and other Qualities, and within “Other Features.”
Badwater Basin, Death Valley NP Wilderness Photo by P. Landres
Examples • A historic cabin site can be a historical feature that contributes to wilderness character but the presence of the structure can still degrade the undeveloped quality and its associated impoundment of a water source can still degrade the undeveloped, natural and untrammeled qualities. • An instrumented feature of scientific importance can still degrade the undeveloped and solitude qualities. It can also compromise it’s scenic value.
An analogy…..
Suggestions When determining what to include in the fifth quality, be… • Thoughtful o Use a multidisciplinary approach
• Justifiable o Document your process and criteria
• Exclusive o If everything is included then nothing is special and there are practical reasons to be focused
• Specific o Clearly articulate what features or categories of features are included in Wilderness Character
Other Features are an important part of Wilderness Character but the whole of wilderness is more than the sum of it’s parts.
"Primarily Wilderness areas provide me with access to a world pretty much left untrammeled by humanity. There, I can see the natural unfolding of life, death, erosion, renewal, and feel closer to the great mystery of creation. It is the protection such places get from the extractive and consumptive nature of human activity that draws me there. They provide for me islands of originality, and their very presence makes me hopeful for the future. So much of the world is taken over for mankind, what is wild should wild remain.” David “Malakai” McMullen 2009
