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

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

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

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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. 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

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

17. 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

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 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.

19. 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

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

21. 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

22. 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

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

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

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 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

27. 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

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

29. Step 5: Data Management

30. Step 5: Data Management

31. Step 5: Data Management

32. Step 5: Data Management

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

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

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

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

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

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

39. Questions & Discussion
Contact Troy:
Contact Steve: