Lakes and streams in Class 1 wilderness areas in the western United States (U.S.) are at risk from at­ mospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S), and protection of these resources is mandated under the Federal Clean Air Act and amendments. Assessment of critical loads, which are the maximum exposure to pollution an area can receive without adverse effects on sensitive ecosystems, requ...

Wilderness managers are charged with the challenging goal of balancing resource protection and experience quality across a broad, value-laden landscape. While research has provided insight into visitors' motivations and their meanings for wilderness, a struggle exists to implement experiential concepts within current management frameworks. This research posits the human experience of wilderness...

The authors propose that wilderness is intrinsically associated with death, and, consequently, terror management concerns may promote more negative evaluations of wilderness. Consistent with this, wilderness inspired more thoughts about death than either cultivated nature or urban environments (Study 1), and death reminders reduced perceived beauty of wilderness (Study 2). The authors further s...

Persons with disabilities are using the National Wilderness Preservation System, and they are receiving a range of benefits from such wilderness use. The means-end theoretical and analysis perspective was used to explore the outcomes and related meanings associated with participating in a wilderness experi­ ence program for people with disabilities as well as those without disabilities. Data we...

Reserve networks figure prominently in conservation strategies that aim to reduce extinction rates. We tested the effectiveness of the current reserve network at protecting species at risk in Canada, where relatively extensive wilderness areas remain. We compared numbers of terrestrial species at risk included in existing reserves to randomly generated networks with the same total area and numb...

Road construction is now common through wilderness and protected areas in tropical and subtropical countries with adverse consequences for their high native biodiversity. Here, we summarize the scope of the problem and advance specific compromise solutions that reconcile development with conservation.

Wilderness attracts tourists and generates visitor spending in proximate communities as people enjoy Wilderness for outdoor recreation. Wilderness also attracts amenity migrants and out-ofregion investments into surrounding regional economies. To investigate the amount and types of employment and income generated by Wilderness visitation, we conducted an economic contribution analysis of aggreg...

of public lands as wilderness continues to be a contentious issue. With about 45 million acres designated as wilderness in the lower 48 states, the question of whether designation of additional wilderness would result in increased recreation use has been raised. We address this issue using a jxed-effects regression model for wilderness use at national forests and national parks throughout the U...

This article presents a new tool—the Wilderness Courage Scale. The Wilderness Courage Scale is a scale that diagnoses undertaking activity in dangerous natural environments, despite personal fears. The validity of the Wilderness Courage Scale was tested using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The results of factor analyses verified the one-factor structure. The questionnaire’s inter...