Increasing visitor use and declining agency wilderness budgets have made it essential that those who value wilderness have a greater understanding of the elements that contribute to the preservation of our wilderness resources and the need to play a greater role in their protection. There is also a need to better inform citizens of the value and benefits of expanding our National Wilderness Preservation System.

Beginning in the early 1970's, there have been significant increases in the level of wilderness visitation. The popularity of areas such as the Desolation Wilderness have led to permit systems that limit the number of visitors to protect these areas from overuse and help prevent the degradation of their wilderness resources. Closer to home, areas such as Canyon Creek in the Trinity Alps Wilderness are experiencing increases in use that make solitude difficult to experience with impacts to the wilderness becoming more evident and widespread.

One of the misconceptions about wilderness management is that it's somehow about manipulating the naturalness and wildness of wilderness. In fact, wilderness management and stewardship are almost always concerned with managing human activity to prevent or minimize impacts to the naturalness and wildness of wilderness. Most visitors have likely seen at least a few of these impacts for themselves on their own wilderness journeys. Problems such as non-system trails threading through meadows; vegetation trampled causing soil erosion; campfire scars and fire rings dotting popular campsite areas; firewood either unavailable or at a premium and living trees damaged in the quest for firewood; streams and lakes polluted with food waste, soap, and shampoo and improperly disposed of human waste and litter.

While it is important to employ "Leave No Trace" practices when traveling and camping in wilderness visitors should also begin to proactively engage in the efforts necessary to restore or naturalize areas that have been impacted by improper or excessive human use.

To help to address the challenge of maintaining our wilderness resources, the California Wilderness Project developed a workshop designed to educate wilderness visitors and the public in the essentials of wilderness protection and rehabilitation.

"Thinking like a Mountain: A Wilderness Stewardship Workshop" uses the 1964 Wilderness Act as a source of inspiration and guidance, focusing on exploring wilderness stewardship and management issues and actions and the development of personal wilderness values and ethics. It utilizes an interactive approach that includes videos, PowerPoint presentations, demonstrations and discussion. This workshop can be used as a springboard for involvement in local wilderness stewardship projects and to promote citizen constituencies that support northern California wilderness areas.

Under development is an educational PowerPoint presentation entitled "Why Wilderness Matters" that presents to the audience the benefits of preserving suitable state and federal lands as wilderness. Its message is tailored to target a rural/conservative audience. Obtaining the congressional support necessary for the passage of wilderness legislation requires broad-based local support that includes non-traditional supporters of wilderness. To encourage support from rural areas, this presentation seeks to dispel the myths and misinformation that surround wilderness and reframe the perception of wilderness to emphasize its harmony with traditional values.





California Wilderness Legacy Project
September 20, 2005
Wilderness volunteer workshop in the Fall (read more)


Thinking Like A Mountain: Wilderness Stewardship In Northern California
December 8, 2004
The California Wilderness Legacy Project was formed in 2003 to address a growing need to educate both wilderness visitors and the general public in the protection and stewardship of our state and federal wilderness areas. (read more)


Increasing OHV Use Threatens Our National Forests
Recreational use in our National Forests has increased dramatically in recent decades, with off-highway vehicle (OHV) use as one of the fastest-growing forms of outdoor recreation. The number of OHV owners and users has risen sevenfold in less than 30 years--from about five million in 1972 to 36 million in 2002. In California alone, there are over 1,101,980 OHVs currently registered. (read more)



Contact Information

Email: gjohnson@ridgeline.net
P.O. Box 781 Palo Cedro, CA 96073