Graduation Year

2018

Graduation Month

May

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

School or Department

Forestry and Conservation

Major

Resource Conservation

Faculty Mentor Department

Wilderness Management

Faculty Mentor

Natalie Dawson

Keywords

Wilderness, Bitterroot, Blue Joint, Forest, Campsites

Subject Categories

Forest Management

Abstract

In order to know whether an area should become Wilderness, both managers and interested members of the public need to have an idea of what this area is like. My coworker Jamie Drysdale and I collected this data over nine weeks last summer. We followed protocols laid out in Keeping it Wild: An Interagency Strategy to Monitor Trends in Wilderness Character Across the Wilderness Preservation System. We collected data on things such as campsites, invasive plants, installations and developments, trail users, motorized or mechanized use, erosion, and signage. From this data I created maps of the different areas showing each attribute. These maps alongside other graphs and explanations by Lisa Gerloff can be found in a report at http://www.cfc.umt.edu/wi/files/citizen-science/Report.BitterrootRecWild.FINAL.pdf and the report on the Blue Joint area at http://www.cfc.umt.edu/wi/files/citizen-science/Report.BlueJoint.RecWild.FINAL.pdf .

Honors College Research Project

1

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