The Relationship Between Perceptions of Wilderness Character and Attitudes Toward Management Intervention to Adapt Biophysical Resources to a Changing Climate and Nature Restoration at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Arthur Carhart (1961) asserted, “[L]ands called ‘wild’ have retained the attribute of freedom. They have their own integrity intact. They have not been skinned, scraped, dug up, regimented and pounded into shapes and services desired and demanded by ‘civilized’ man.” Cited in Aplet et al. 2000.

Abstract

In a recent national survey of federal wilderness managers, respondents identified the high priority need for scientific information about public attitudes toward biophysical intervention to adapt to climate change and attitudes of the public toward restoration of natural conditions. In a survey of visitors to one National Park wilderness in California, visitors revealed that they largely do not support biophysical intervention in wilderness to mitigate the effects of climate change, but broad support for activities that restore natural conditions exists. In an attempt to understand how these attitudes vary among visitors, it was found that those visitors who most value naturalness aspects of wilderness character also most positively support restoration and are most negative toward climate change intervention practices. More information about visitor-defined wilderness character attributes is needed and strategic planning to guide intervention decisions and restoration should be a priority. In this study, it was found that wilderness character is largely defined by visitors based on its wildness attributes, which include natural sounds, low density of people, pure water, clean air, and the presence of humans substantially unnoticeable.