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

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

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

Wilderness & Solitude Wilderness character The only land designation where solitude is mandated Photo: Troy Hall One of the 5 elements of wilderness character

Wilderness & Solitude Opportunities may be compromised Tom Iraci Troy Hall

10YWSC All wildernesses managed to a minimum stewardship level by 2014 10 elements, each worth 10 points Target: 60 points The 10 Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge was initiated in FY 2005 with the goal of having all wildernesses managed to a “minimum stewardship level” by 2014, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The 10YWC consists of 10 elements, each worth 10 points.  Wildernesses must score 60 points or higher to be considered managed to this standard. §  The elements cover a wide variety of stewardship responsibilities, including fire planning, management of invasive plants and completing recreation site inventories. Photo: Wilderness.net

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

Scoring for Element 5 Score Accomplishment Level 2 A protocol is in place to inventory conditions relative to opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation experiences. 4 Current conditions relative to the opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation experiences are inventoried and evaluated to develop direction. 6 The Forest Plan contains the needed components to provide adequate direction on management of opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined recreation specific to this wilderness. Conditions are monitored on the ground and evaluated for compliance with forest plan direction. If monitoring shows that unacceptable levels of degradation exist, appropriate management actions are taken. If conditions are stable or improving, no further actions are needed. 8 For areas where current conditions or trends dictate more specific direction, indicators are identified and adequate standards or guidelines are developed in a wilderness management plan, in the forest plan, or supplemental direction to protect opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation. 10 Monitoring provides systematic feedback on how well management actions are working and identifies trends in conditions which may require changes in management actions.

Why create a national protocol? Challenge making progress on Element 5 Inherent difficulties monitoring for solitude Solitude is more challenging to monitor than other things like campsite conditions – can’t just go out once and survey. Photos: Brad Johnson

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

Scoring with the minimum protocol 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 Photo: Maria Burke

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

Step 1: Pre-work 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? E.g., Does your plan use groups or people as the unit of analysis? E.g., are standards written as average number of groups per day? Percent of days with encounters above a certain number? NPS photo

Step 1: Pre-work Existing WROS zones?

Step 1: Pre-work 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 Because most visitation is concentrated on trails, most of the wilderness that is more than about ¼ mile from trail will be classified as “low use” and not be monitored. In larger wildernesses, most use occurs within 6-8 miles of a trailhead or other access point, so interior areas are likely to be classified as “low use,” even if they have trails. Thus, in many wildernesses, the majority of the land will be designated in the lowest use category. Encounter monitoring will not be done in these areas. Photo: Jay Robinson

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

Step 2: Select monitoring areas What is a monitoring area? Monitoring areas should be large enough to make sense for 4 hours of data collection (e.g., a 1-mile stretch of trail between two junctions is probably too small, while a 15-mile stretch of trail may be too long) and should match as closely as possible the dominant use patterns (e.g., for a 2-mile trail to a popular lake, it would probably make sense to include the access trail and lake all as one “monitoring area”). There may be exceptions that justify different decisions; for instance, if a popular waterfall is located at the end of a 1-mile trail, you may choose to consider this a use zone. It is important to do what makes sense according to the way people use your wilderness, and then document those decisions. Photo: Troy Hall

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. Miles of trail is used in this classification, but if a wilderness has other types of travel corridors (e.g., established user trails, slot canyons, river segments, or canoe routes), those should be considered equivalent to trails for the purposes of this monitoring. The same data are collected for Type 1 and Type 2 wildernesses, but the number of monitoring areas is different, as explained below. For Type 3 areas, this protocol does not apply.

Step 2: Select monitoring areas 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 Photo: G. Wuerthner

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

The decision about which monitoring areas to choose is a judgment call The decision about which monitoring areas to choose is a judgment call. Therefore, each wilderness could have a different approach to selecting monitoring areas. Document decisions and create clear maps Photo: Wilderness.net

Step 3: Sampling 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 Why so many days of data collection? Photo: Mike Carr, Gila NF

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

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

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

Step 4: Collect data Traveling Encounters Form Opportunity Class/Use Zone: Observer: Monitoring Area Name: Start Time: Date: Stop Time: □ Weekday □ Weekend □ Holiday Total Time: Tally number of people encountered here: Total encounters: Camp Encounters Form Campsite Number/Description # occupied sites w/in sight or continuous sound

Step 4: Collect data Traveling Encounters Form Opportunity Class/Use Zone: High (zone 1) Observer: Troy Hall Monitoring Area Name: Pamelia Lake Start Time: 8:05 Date: July 1, 2014 Stop Time: 12:05 □ Weekday □ Weekend x Holiday Total Time: 4:00 Tally number of people encountered here: |||||||||||| Total encounters: 12 groups Camp Encounters Form Campsite Number/Description # occupied sites w/in sight or continuous sound Marion #1 Marion #5 2 Marion # 10 1

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

Step 5: Data Management

Step 5: Data Management

Step 5: Data Management

Step 5: Data Management

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

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

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

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

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

A tip of the hat to… TJ Broom WIMST, especially Togan Capozza Kimberly Schlenker Chad Grossenberg Tim Eling Steve Boutcher

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