USFS National Minimum Protocol for Monitoring Solitude

1. USFS National Minimum Protocol for Monitoring Solitude June 5, 2014 Dr. Troy E. Hall WIMST Oregon State University troy.hall@oregonstate.edu

2. Overview of the webinar Photo: Troy Hall • Why monitor opportunities for solitude • Element 5 of the Challenge • The national minimum protocol • Q&A

3. Why monitor solitude Photo: cfot.ca Wilderness Act: “outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive & unconfined type of recreation”

4. Wilderness & Solitude Photo: Troy Hall Wilderness character The only land designation where solitude is mandated

5. Wilderness & Solitude Troy Hall Tom Iraci Opportunities may be compromised

6. 10YWSC Photo: Wilderness.net All wildernesses managed to a minimum stewardship level by 2014 10 elements, each worth 10 points Target: 60 points

7. Element 5 Photo: Tom Kaffine “This wilderness has adequate direction, monitoring, and management actions to protect opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation.”

8. Scoring for Element 5

9. Why create a national protocol? Photos: Brad Johnson Challenge making progress on Element 5 Inherent difficulties monitoring for solitude

10. Assumptions Photo: Wilderness Watch This does not address primitive & unconfined recreation “number of encounters” is the most appropriate indicator for solitude This is a minimum protocol

11. Scoring with the minimum protocol Photo: Maria Burke 4 points = data complete (collected & summarized) for each monitoring area Data ≤ 10 years old (recommend 5 years) Indicators and standards need not be formally presented in planning documents

12. What’s in the protocol? Photo: Troy Hall Photo: Marty Almquist Establishing use zones Selecting monitoring areas Scheduling data collection Collecting encounter data Basic analysis

13. Step 1: Pre-work NPS photo • Existing indicators & standards? • E.g., “80% of the time a visitor will encounter 10 or fewer groups per day” • E.g., “There shall be no more than one campsite visible or audible from any campsite, or closer than 500 feet in open country” • Previous data?

14. Step 1: Pre-work Existing WROS zones?

15. Step 1: Pre-work Photo: Jay Robinson • Establishing Use Zones • 2-4 categories • High, moderate, low • Most wilderness is “low use” -- <10% of all visitation • Monitoring is not required in low use zones

16. Step 1: Pre-work Photo: Steve Boutcher Photo: wilderness.net • Establishing Use Zones • Mapping considerations • Reasonable size • Logical traffic patterns • Other management concerns

17. Step 2: Select monitoring areas Photo: Troy Hall What is a monitoring area?

18. Step 2: Select monitoring areas • What “type” of wilderness? • Type 1: • “High” or “Medium” use wildernesses with > 75 miles of travel corridor • “Low” use wildernesses with > 100 miles of travel corridor. • Type 2: • “High” or “Medium” use wildernesses with 1-75 miles of travel corridor • “Low” use wildernesses with 1-100 miles of travel corridor. • Type 3: • Wildernesses with no miles of travel corridor.

19. Step 2: Select monitoring areas Photo: G. Wuerthner • How many monitoring areas? • Type I wildernesses: • 2 locations within each use class, except low use • Type II wildernesses: • 1 location within each use class, except low use

20. Step 2: Select monitoring areas NPS Photo Photo: Troy Hall • How do you choose? • Representative area? • Canary in the coal mine? • Known problem areas?

21. The decision about which monitoring areas to choose is a judgment call. Therefore, each wilderness could have a different approach to selecting monitoring areas. Photo: Wilderness.net

22. Step 3: Sampling Photo: Mike Carr, Gila NF • Sampling • 5 weekdays & 5 weekend/holiday for each monitoring area, during high use season • 4 hours per monitoring session – daytime hours for traveling encounters • Convenience vs. random sampling

23. Step 4: Collect data Photo: wilderness.net Photo: Chris Barns • Traveling encounters • people you see and/or hear while traveling in the monitoring area

24. Step 4: Collect data Photo: Cathy Curby Photo: Troy Hall • Camp encounters • number of other camping groups visible or audible from each occupied campsite

25. Step 4: Collect data • What’s an encounter? • Inside or outside wilderness? • On/off trail? • Close vs. distant? • Multiple sightings?

26. Step 4: Collect data

27. Step 4: Collect data

28. Step 4: Collect data Photo: Bob Wick • Supplementary information • Visitor characteristics • Traffic counters

29. Step 5: Data Management

30. Step 5: Data Management

31. Step 5: Data Management

32. Step 5: Data Management

33. Available materials Photo: Brad Eells • Protocol • Definitions and procedures • Guidance for establishing use zones • “checksheet” • FAQs

34. Available materials • See also wilderness.net • Toolboxes  visitor use management  monitoring

35. FAQs Photo: A. Halford Why not use trail counters or permits? What if we have an existing protocol? What can Type III wildernesses do?

36. FAQs Photo: Michael Lusk How does this fit with Wilderness Character Monitoring and wilderness performance measure?

37. Important caveats Photo: wilderness.net Photo: Cathy Curby Protocol works for most but not all wildernesses Not adequate for monitoring trends

38. A tip of the hat to… • TJ Broom • WIMST, especially • ToganCapozza • Kimberly Schlenker • Chad Grossenberg • Tim Eling • Steve Boutcher

39. Questions & Discussion • Contact Troy: • troy.hall@oregonstate.edu • Contact Steve: • sboutcher@fs.fed.us