Research Note INT-RP-475
The Wilderness Threats Matrix: A Framework for Assessing Impacts
Introduction

The 1964 Wilderness Act establishes stringent goals for management of wilderness: preservation of natural conditions and wilderness character, and provision of outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation. In addition, the Act permits a number of specific uses in wilderness that potentially threaten these goals: "Wilderness areas shall be devoted to the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use." These uses of wilderness are often referred to as conforming uses. The Act also allows for the continuance of certain "nonconforming" uses-mining on valid claims that existed before 1984, livestock grazing, the establishment and maintenance of reservoirs, administrative facilities, and the control of fire, insects, and diseases. The Act does not specify how to resolve potential conflicts between conforming, nonconforming or administrative uses of wilderness and the preservation of wilderness character. One of the primary responsibilities of wilderness managers is to protect wilderness character from the potential threats these internal uses pose.

Managers' responsibilities become even more daunting in light of the external threats to wilderness. Wildernesses do not exist in a vacuum; they are part of larger landscapes and regions. Wilderness boundaries may be relatively impermeable to chainsaws and mountain bikes, but they are highly permeable to pollutants, migrating animals, exotic species, noise and light, wildfires, insects, and diseases.

Protecting wilderness from these potential threats would be challenging even if managers had a substantial body of scientific knowledge to draw from. Unfortunately, little is known about the impacts of most of these threats. Wilderness research and management have traditionally been focused on problems associated with recreational use. Other potential threats have been largely ignored. Reaching the goal of effective wilderness protection will require knowledge about the entire spectrum of threats to wilderness, including effective ways to monitor these threats and mitigate their impacts. An important step toward this goal is the development of a comprehensive framework of threats to wilderness and their impacts.

This report proposes such a framework-the wilderness threats matrix. This matrix will be a useful tool to wilderness planners, managers, and researchers. It can be used by planners during the scoping process, in describing the current management situation, in developing assumptions about the future, and in assessing the impacts of alternative management actions. It provides a comprehensive overview of monitoring needs. It can be used to assess research priorities, as well as management priorities for individual wildernesses, regions, and the National Wilderness Preservation System. The report includes an example of one of these applications, an assessment of the perceived significance of threats to wilderness in the Forest Service's Northern Region (northern Idaho and Montana).

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Title: Introduction: INT-RP-475 - The Wilderness Threats Matrix: A Framework for Assessing Impacts
Electronic Publish Date: October 31, 1996
Expires: Indefinite
Last Update: January 15, 2002

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