LESSON 9 Recognizing Recreational Benefits of Wilderness

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1 LESSON 9 Recognizing Recreational Benefits of Wilderness Objectives: Students will: study, analyze, and compare recreation visitor days (RVD s) for Wilderness areas adjacent to their homes or nearest state, and other Wilderness areas across the United States. brainstorm potential solutions for recreation impacts in Wilderness. describe the environmental and economic impact of different kinds of Wildernessrelated recreation. answer Wilderness-related recreation value questions. Location: classroom Background: Wilderness offers many benefits to us: scientific, educational, scenic, and historical. The Wilderness: An Overview section offers excellent examples of these benefits, see page 5. It would be worthwhile for you and your students to review this information before launching into this lesson on Wilderness-related recreation use. The Wilderness Act calls for outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation in Wilderness. Most Wilderness users enjoy camping, hiking, hunting, horsepacking, fishing, climbing, canoeing and nature study. Wildernessoriented commercial services allow some people to enjoy wilderness values and recreational experiences. Outfitters guide services for horseback, hiking, mountain climbing, or river trips may be allowed under special use permits in Wilderness areas. The challenge for Wilderness managers is to provide recreational opportunities while keeping wilderness an area without permanent improvement or human habitation, an area where people are visitors who do not remain. Visitors must accept wilderness largely on its own terms, without modern facilities provided for their comfort or convenience. Users must also accept certain risks, including possible dangers arising from weather conditions, physical features, and other natural phenomena inherent in various elements and conditions that make up a wilderness experience and primitive methods of travel. To protect the Wilderness resource, restrictions may be placed on group size, campsite location, or length of stay in individual wilderness areas. Visitor education, trail design, Page 149

2 Â Background continued: and other non-regulating measures are implemented before restrictions are imposed. Entry permits are required in some of the more heavily used Wilderness areas. Permits are necessary to preserve the area and to ensure that visitors are provided an opportunity for solitude. In the activities supporting the lesson students will analyze visitor use data to reflect patterns and trends in Wilderness, learn how natural processes are affected by recreation use, develop economic costs of recreation activities, and discuss recreation benefits and Wilderness-related management implications. Activity 1: Wilderness Carrying Capacity chalkboard student handout: Visitation Data, page 152. Í National Wilderness Preservation Map Duration: 1 class period 1. After reading the background section, introduce the activity with the following information. In order to preserve naturalness and solitude, it is essential to manage the Wilderness resource. Creative management of people in Wilderness is a growing need in the United States as demand and use grows. Controlling the impacts of human use is necessary to preserve the elements of solitude and naturalness required by the Wilderness Act. 2. Discuss potential problems and conflicts associated with recreation: overuse of popular areas resulting in environmental degradation and lack of solitude water pollution from human and animal waste (horses, mules, cows, etc.) aesthetic degradation, for example, 3-foot-high stumps alongside a lakeshore. historical snowmobile and ORV use in some Wilderness areas wildlife/human conflicts soil compaction and trampling of native vegetation taming the Wilderness too many or too easy trails, permanent fixtures such as bridges, signs and toilets. Page 150

3 Procedure continued: 3. Now that more and more people are discovering and experiencing Wilderness and wildlands, overcrowding and overuse has become a problem. Transfer the following visitation data on the chalkboard. Ask students to read and consider this student hand out, Wilderness Visitation. It is obvious that Wilderness recreational use is increasing rapidly, creating problems related to the maintenance and protection of Wilderness areas for their established purposes. Excessive recreational use affects wildlife, vegetation, and watersheds. People seeking to spend time in some Wilderness areas are finding urban problems in the form of heavy traffic, cars vandalized at trailheads, water pollution, litter, and overcrowding. 4. Hold a discussion on the following questions. You may ask individuals or small groups to be prepared to state a position, which the class could then discuss. Under what circumstances, if any, might citizens be restricted from entering and using a public Wilderness? What circumstances may have caused the tremendous increase in Wilderness recreation activity? Should Wildernesses be managed to accommodate more visitors? If so, how? What problems might be solved and what problems might be created by your proposal? What are the purposes of Wilderness areas? Has the intent changed? Why? Does it appear that any other changes are necessary or appropriate? Describe your reasoning. Should more Wilderness areas be established? If so, where? What impact might the increase of Wilderness have on the use of resources for other purposes? What possible trade-offs are involved? Would you be willing to accept those trade-offs? State your reasons. Examining the National Wilderness Preservation Map might help students answer this question. If our population and cities continue to grow, would there be a still greater demand on Wilderness areas for recreation? If it were possible to create more parks in urban areas, how might this affect the demand on Wilderness areas? What other possible means are there for maintaining and using Wilderness? Credit: Teaching For Wilderness, Wendy Scherrer, North Cascades Institute Page 151

4 Â Activity 1: Wilderness Carrying Capacity STUDENT HANDOUT Wildernesses Visitation Recreation areas, including Wildernesses, are under increasing pressure as more and more people are using public lands, as indicated by the following data. Number of Visitors to Wilderness Bob Marshall Wilderness, MT 15,700 23,790 20,270 18,110 19,960 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, MN 76,400 78,800 81, , ,000 Superstition Wilderness, AZ 82,600 84,600 98, , ,000 MT Jefferson Wilderness, OR 24,853 29,238 30,300 26,976 30,100 Grand Canyon National Park 73,160 77,139 75,067 83,178 90,178 Yosemite National Park 78,954 64,441 52,100 51,923 52,699 Denali National Park 17,399 30,334 27,182 36,000 37,164 Glacier National Park 24,800 22,600 14,800 19,500 28,923 Page 152

5 Activity 2: Plan a Trip Students will need to gather information on costs of Wilderness-related recreation options. Duration: 1 class period, possible homework 1. Ask your students to generate a list of the different ways in which they might use a Wilderness for outdoor recreation. For example, backpacking, horsepacking, fishing, hunting, climbing, canoeing, and nature study. 2. Divide the class into small groups. Ask each group to plan a visit for the same length of time to the same Wilderness, choosing one of the uses listed above. 3. Ask each group to find out what they would need for the visit and what costs would be involved. For example, identify economic costs related to such things as price of equipment, special training, travel costs to reach destination, hiring a commercial outfitter, hunting and fishing licenses, permits, and maps. Identify possible environmental costs such as loss of forage for wildlife, soil compaction and erosion, and stress to wildlife populations. 4. After all the groups have gathered and organized this information, ask groups to compare the costs of the trips by discussing these questions: Which recreation activity costs the most and which the least? Which recreational use requires the greatest and which the smallest expenditure of energy? Be sure to take into account energy used in manufacturing and maintaining equipment. How does the economic costs of these modes of use relate to their environmental cost or impact? Does the dollar amount you spent on the trip or experience represent its full economic cost? For example, who pays for transportation from home to the Wilderness trailhead and return? How much will it cost to hire an outfitter who will furnish appropriate equipment, meals and guiding services? 5. Follow this discussion by an analysis of the various potential benefits related to each of these recreational uses of and practices within a Wilderness. Weigh the costs and the benefits related to each and discuss why these are important considerations. Take a trip that seems to combine the greatest benefits with the fewest negative costs. 6. Branch into a discussion of qualitative values and the potential problems associated with having to come up with monetary values. Credit: Adapted from Project Learning Tree Guide 7-12, Plan a Trip. Page 153

6 Â Activity 3: Wilderness Value Questions to Ponder copies of Wilderness Value Questions from the procedure section, and Laws Affecting Wilderness Management, Wilderness: An Overview section, pages Duration: 1 class period 1. Present the following questions on the chalk board, as a hand out, or on an overhead transparency. Do you feel we should be rescuing a person with a broken leg (not in life threatening situation) in Wilderness with a helicopter? Are there other transportation alternatives? If available free to you, would you take a cellular phone into Wilderness with the thought that it would only be used to help in an emergency situation? Do you feel it is appropriate to leave some established rock bolt routes for climbing in Wilderness? Does the value of having the number of users controlled by a permit system outweigh the value of unregulated use and freedom in Wilderness? Do you believe permit systems should be used in Wilderness? Should people be allowed to collect animal antlers, historical artifacts, or natural objects in Wilderness? Should recreation opportunities be the dominant value of Wilderness? Activity 4: Observing Ecological Processes on the Landscape Í video: Soft Paths Duration: 1 class period Location: classroom 1. Show video. Discuss different types of potential impacts to the environment, people, and animals. Define and list them. Discuss how these principles support ecological processes in Wilderness. Page 154

7 Procedure continued: Do you feel it is OK to have trail signs in wilderness? Do you feel it is OK to put mileage on signs in the Wilderness? Is it OK to bury decomposable garbage in Wilderness? If you have a well-behaved dog, would you feel it is appropriate to take it with you in Wilderness, or should the dog remain at home? In your own mind, is it appropriate for outfitters to have business operations dependent on Wilderness? 2. Introduce students to the activity by explaining they will use the knowledge gained from the previous activities to ponder questions Wilderness managers struggle to answer. Stress to the students there are no easy answers. First and foremost, Wilderness managers must determine whether the answer can be found in the Wilderness Act. Further consultation and consideration must be made by studying other natural resource policies affecting Wilderness. 3. Have copies of the Wilderness Act and other Wilderness-related policies available for students to reference. The Wilderness Act and Laws Affecting Wilderness Management can be found in the Wilderness: An Overview section of the curriculum, pages 46 and 17, respectively. 4. Divide the class into small groups. Assign 1-2 Wilderness Value Questions to each group. They will then discuss their value questions, consult Wilderness-related policy, and come up with a response they will share with their classmates. Evaluation / Follow-up / Extension Evaluate assignments from each activity conducted. Assign an essay or journal entry to describe recreation benefits and values of Wilderness. Invite a wilderness manager to speak to your students about Wilderness management challenges. Conduct a life-style survey and relate the connection between standard of living to quality of life which includes the desire for wild places. For further investigation, refer to other Social Studies lessons, Lesson 1: Who Manages Wilderness, page 102, Lesson 2: National Wilderness Preservation System, page 12, and the Wilderness Act and Wilderness Management Case Studies, page 46. Career Options: Wilderness manager, recreation planner for county, city, state, or federal program, social scientist, research scientist, commercial outfitter or guide, outdoor recreation leader References: Wilderness Awareness Training Module, Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center. Wilderness Management, John C. Hendee, George H. Stankey, and Bob C. Lucas. Teaching for Wilderness, Wendy Scherrer, North Cascades Institute. Project Learning Tree Activity Guide Page 155