Wilderness Advisory Group News 1

W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

NEWSLETTER OF THE CHIEF’S WILDERNESS ADVISORY GROUP Winter 2015

A sharper Contrast Letter from departing Acting

Director, Wilderness and Wild and

Scenic Rivers, Liz Close

If Wilderness was wine, 2014

would be a very fine vintage

indeed! The 50th Anniversary of

the Wilderness Act is notable

regardless, but the outpouring of

commitment and creativity, joining

and sharing truly brought

Wilderness down from the

mountains and into our

communities. The celebrations

were significant, but the lack of

traction for any discussions about

how Wilderness is an outdated

elitist ideal was even more

delightful. Sorry naysayers,

Wilderness belongs to the masses

and we masses love it. We can

touch it and share it, we can walk

and splash and run and sit on our

butts in it, we see no need to punch

holes in it with mountain bikes or

dive bomb it with drones.

Wilderness is what it is and that’s

enough. It isn’t perfect – perfection

sounds quite boring – instead

Wilderness adds texture to a planet

that would be less interesting

without it. We must continue to

welcome everyone to Wilderness

and to increase our outreach to

those who haven’t had the

experiences we’ve been fortunate

to have had. But that doesn’t mean

we should “let up” on our

protective stewardship. We

shouldn’t relax wilderness

protections with the mistaken

impression that “Wilderness-Lite”

is more accessible, more appealing.

If anything we should sharpen our

management skills and strengthen

the contrast. We should focus our

actions to emphasize the difference

between Wilderness and the rest of

the federally-managed public

estate.

Because that difference is the true

value of Wilderness. The value of

nature for nature’s sake. The

value of land that we have total

control over, and we use that

control to allow natural processes

to shape the future. Where as

much as possible, flood and

drought, fire and wind, life and

death can do their thing. Because

if we don’t treat Wilderness

differently from the surrounding

landscape, it literally disappears. It

melts away, and our spectrum of

American landscapes would

resemble the product resulting

from dumping and mixing all 31

flavors of Baskin Robbins ice

cream in a ginormous bowl.

(See Liz Close, cont. on pg. 4)

Liz Close, USFS (retired) Acting Director for Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers

W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

2 Wilderness Advisory Group News

Accountability in

Decision Making: Monongahela National

Forest,

The Trail Not Taken By Bjorn Fredrickson

In late October, 2012 Superstorm

Sandy made landfall in the Eastern

United States, causing widespread

devastation across the Mid-

Atlantic. Howling winds paired

with wet, heavy snows in West

Virginia downed trees and

powerlines across the state,

resulting in the weeks-long closure

of dozens of roads and the loss of

power to several hundred

thousand customers. How did

Sandy affect wildernesses in this

area? Approximately 120 miles of

trails on the Monongahela

National Forest, located mostly in

five wildernesses, were extensively

covered by downed trees, broken

branches, and busted tree tops.

For much of these 120 miles of

trail, the only way to “hike” was to

crawl and climb through the mass

of large, tangled timber; in some

cases a person standing on this

debris would be ten to fifteen feet

off the ground! Often, the only

evidence that a trail was even

present was an occasional, brief

glimpse of the tread underneath

the limbs and branches. In

essence, these five wildernesses—

some internationally popular and

others beloved primarily by local

visitors—were inaccessible.

One might assume that in such

circumstances the first question by

the non-wilderness savvy would

be how to fast-track a minimum

requirements analysis to justify

the use of chainsaws to clear the

120 miles of trail and restore

wilderness access. Instead,

Monongahela staff first considered

how to accomplish this project

safely, and because of a deep

wilderness ethic on the forest, they

were determined to find a way to

clear these trails with crosscut

saws and axes. So the first

question Monongahela staff asked

wasn’t how to justify the use of

chainsaws; instead it was, How do

we get enough skilled crosscut

sawyers to safely complete the

task? While a host of

Monongahela employees were

proficient in traditional skills, the

job was too big to go at it alone.

The answer to this question was to

borrow the necessary skills—

twelve Forest Service employees

from six National Forests and four

Regions spent six weeks clearing

the debris bestowed by Superstorm

Sandy, often in discouraging

conditions. These seasoned

traditional skills masters worked

twelve-hour shifts, sometimes

making only a hundred feet of

progress a day. However, when

these crews left it was once again

possible to hike these 120 miles of

trails and through their work the

crews honored our mandate to

preserve wilderness character.

(See Success, continued on pg. 4)

W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

3 Wilderness Advisory Group News

Pike-San Isabel National Forest, Region 2;

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Leadville National Fish Hatchery

Designated: 1980; Size: 30,540 acres

Spotlight

By Elizabeth Mejicano, Leopold

Institute Wilderness Research

Fellow

Located just east of the

Continental Divide in the Sawatch

Range of Colorado, the Mount

Massive Wilderness encompasses

some of the highest elevations in

the continental United States. The

mountain for which the

wilderness is named, Mount

Massive, has the greatest area of

land over 14,000 feet and is the

third highest peak in the lower

forty-eight states. Summit hikes

are a primary recreational activity,

as are hikes along the merged

Colorado Trail and Continental

Divide National Scenic Trail. As

with many mountain

wildernesses, increasing visitation

has been identified as a primary

management concern. While the

Mount Massive Wilderness is only

a two hour drive from Denver and

receives visitors from around the

world, it can feel relatively

remote in comparison to other

Colorado wilderness areas that

are closer to the front range.

Mount Massive is adjacent to the

Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness,

within 10 miles of the Holy Cross,

Buffalo Peaks, and Collegiate

Peaks wildernesses, and within 40

miles of six other wildernesses.

This regional network along the

crest of the continent provides

crucial habitat for lynx and other

alpine species. Although much of

the Mount Massive Wilderness is

above the treeline and dominated

by alpine tundra, spruce and fir

forests are found at mid-elevations

and yield to aspens and lodgepole

pines as the wilderness boundary

approaches. This landscape is

home to the headwaters of the

Arkansas River, and riparian

habitat is prevalent throughout

the wilderness. The lower

elevation forests were extensively

logged in the late 1800s to provide

timber and charcoal for the mines

in the nearby town of Leadville.

While the trees have grown back,

the remains of these historic

mining and logging activities can

still be found in the wilderness

today.

The Mount Massive Wilderness

was designated in 1980 by the

Colorado Wilderness Act and is co-

managed by the Forest Service and

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mount Massive has the distinction

of being the only unit in the

National Wilderness Preservation

System to be located on a National

Fish Hatchery. As less than ten

percent (2,560 acres) of the

wilderness is on hatchery land, the

Forest Service has assumed

primary management

responsibilities for the area.

(See Spotlight, continued on pg. 10)

Wilderness Spotlight Mount Massive Wilderness: an interagency commitment

W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

4 Wilderness Advisory Group News

Agency heads sign the 2020 vision at the 50thAnniversary of the Wilderness Act Conference, October 2014.

United by a Vision Interagency stewardship priorities

for America’s Wilderness

By Connie Myers, Carhart Center

Chief Tidwell, among leadership

from the four wilderness

stewardship agencies—the Bureau

of Land Management, Forest

Service, National Park Service and

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—

pledged to strengthen and broaden

our wilderness stewardship and

science by signing the 2020 Vision:

Interagency Stewardship Priorities

for America’s National Wilderness

Preservation System at the 50th

Wilderness Conference in

Albuquerque. At the heart of 2020

Vision are three broad themes:

1) Protect Wilderness Resources

2) Connect People to their

Wilderness Heritage

3) Foster Excellence in Wilderness

Leadership and Coordination

Through outreach efforts led by

our interagency wilderness

organizations, the Aldo Leopold

Wilderness Research Institute

and the Arthur Carhart National

Wilderness Training Center, the

field identified key wilderness and

stewardship priorities. In direct

response to those priorities, the

2020 Vision summarizes

interagency goals, objectives, and

actions to guide the priorities of

the Interagency Wilderness Policy

Council (IWPC), enhance

collaborative stewardship and

science, ensure that the National

Wilderness Preservation System is

managed as a single system, and

inspire new partnerships. To

make this document more directly

meaningful, the IWPC is taking

the lead to develop an

Implementation Plan by April 30,

2015, which will include input

from the field and our partners.

The 2020 Vision demonstrates

commitment to wilderness

stewardship and inspires the field,

our sister agencies, partners, and

the public to protect, connect, and

lead—to keep the promise of

America’s National Wilderness

Preservation System.

(Liz Close, cont. from pg. 1)

The result would likely taste

pretty good – it’s ice cream after

all! – but there’d be no going back

to rocky road or orange creamsicle

or pleasing huckleberry. And

similarly, if we let Wilderness

melt away by not heeding the

Wilderness Act restrictions and

requirements, the spectrum of

American landscapes will lose

that sharp wild edge. And we

would be a poorer people for it.

The easiest thing about retiring

after 38 years with the Forest

Service is knowing that Wilderness

is in your good hands. Thank you;

it’s been an honor stewarding with

you I hope to see you on a

wilderness trail – most likely I’ll

wave from where I’m lounging in

the sunshine as you stride past.

Happy Trails, Liz

(Success, continued from pg. 2)

Due to the decision to exclusively

use traditional skills as well as the

efforts of crewmembers to

complete this project, the

Monongahela National Forest and

this motley bunch of wild women

and men were recognized with the

2014 National Wilderness Traditional

Skills and Minimum Tool Leadership

Award. There seems to be a

perception among many in the

wilderness community that

mechanized and motorized uses

are growing in wilderness. If true,

this story about a decision to use

traditional skills in extremely

adverse circumstances brings to

mind a few lines from an old

literary master that goes something

like this: Two trails diverged in a

wood, and I – I took the one less

traveled by, And that has made all the

difference.

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Wilderness Advisory Group News

WAG 2015 Program of Work

Wilderness Career Ladder

This task team will continue the

efforts from previous years to

break down the barriers that

compromise agency wilderness

program hiring and retention. The

team will also continue to raise

awareness of the issues to key

personnel, further engaging

leadership and human resources in

the effort.

Strategic Investment Funds for

Wilderness Stewardship

Performance

The task team is developing a

national level request for

supplemental funding to support

on-the-ground projects, beginning

in FY 2016, similar to the granting

program that was implemented

during the last four years of the 10-

Year Wilderness Stewardship

Challenge. Additionally, the team

has developed a request for funds

in FY 2015, if they were to become

available, to support projects that

would have broad benefit, such as

the development of new or

innovative techniques for

addressing the new elements

under the WSP.

WAG

Tales

Newsletter Publication

This task team will continue to

publish WAG Tales, the semi-

annual publication designed to

keep Forest Service staff abreast of

current issues in wilderness

stewardship. This team will

continue to seek ways to improve

the WAG Tales distribution strategy

to ensure that the newsletter

reaches a broad community within

the agency

Wilderness Stewardship

Performance (WSP) FAQ

Development Team

In an effort to anticipate questions

managers might have when

implementing the Wilderness

Stewardship Performance for the

first time, this task team is

developing frequently asked

questions for each WSP element.

FAQ’s will be included in the WSP

implementation guidebook to

support field staff in the

implementation of the new

performance measure elements.

The Maximum Analysis

Experience: Take Two

This task team builds on work

started in 2013 to tackle some

FAQ’s and common

misconceptions about the

Minimum Requirements Analysis

and Minimum Requirements

Decision Guide.

Ensuring Appropriate Uniform

Components for the Wilderness

Field Program: Safe, warm, dry

This task team continues WAG’s

previous efforts to have more

appropriate uniform components

for the wilderness field program

made available in the Forest

Service Uniform Catalog.

Brief the Chief

WAG Chair, Sam Massman, will

meet with FS Chief, Tom Tidwell,

to discuss current wilderness

stewardship issues and WAG’s

2015 program of work. Sam

presented Chief Tidwell an award

honoring his commitment to the

success of the 10YWSC at the

Forest Service National Leadership

Council meeting in December

(below). Chief Tidwell authorized

nearly $10 million in funding to

support the Challenge over the last

four years.

P W 2015

W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

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Wilderness Advisory Group News

Accountability Across

Resources By Russell F. Thurow, Rocky

Mountain Research Station

On a cool August morning,

Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus

tshawytscha) fulfill an ancient ritual

in the wilderness. Despite the

rigors of an 850-mile journey, the

female excavates a redd (nest) by

moving stream gravels with her

tail while males spar for a place

beside her. In an ultimate act of

nurturing, these salmon spawn

and die, their bodies providing

essential nutrients for the next

generation of salmon and a host of

other aquatic and terrestrial

organisms. Northwest salmon

have been performing this

reproductive ritual for at least two

million years, and in 2014 this

place and these salmon are

extraordinary. Idaho’s Middle

Fork Salmon River flows through

the heart of the 2.3 million acre

Frank Church-River of No Return

Wilderness (the Frank), the largest

contiguous wilderness in the

lower 48 states. The Chinook

salmon in the Middle Fork spawn

as high as 6,000 feet, a higher

elevation than any others.

Genetically intact wild salmon like

these are rare, persisting in just 4%

of the Columbia River Basin’s

historical spring/summer Chinook

salmon habitat; all other

populations have been extirpated

or supplemented with hatchery-

reared salmon.

The Frank’s large area and

wilderness designation allow

natural processes to function

relatively unimpeded across its

vast landscape. Natural processes

create and alter habitats,

providing a template that is

essential to the expression of native

species’ life history and genetic

diversity. To illustrate, over the

past two decades, wildfires have

burned over 52% of the Middle

Fork basin. Intense thunderstorms

or rain-on-snow events following

fires create debris flows or snow

avalanches that push wood and

sediment into streams. Salmon in

this wilderness basin evolved with

these dynamic landscape

processes, which have been acting

on this landscape and creating

essential habitats for salmon and

other native species for millennia.

A nearly complete assemblage of

native species persists in the

Frank—only grizzly bears and

indigenous people are absent from

the era of Lewis and Clark.

(See Salmon, continued on pg. 11)

Salmon and Wilderness

Sharing the responsibility, sharing the benefits

W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

Wilderness Advisory Group News 9

Accountability In Stewardship

Our Past and Our Future

Reflections on the 10YWSC By Adam Barnett, wilderness

manager, former WAG chair

Lack of accountability is one of the

primary weaknesses of our agency.

Lots of independence, minimal

oversight, and limited

consequences mean that people

have a lot of leeway in deciding

how to do their jobs. In some

instances, doing what we want as

wilderness stewards aligns well

with what’s best for wilderness.

But with hundreds of agency staff

making thousands of independent

decisions that affect wilderness

each year, management can drift

toward decisions that reflect

personal preference rather than

professional standards.

By emphasizing accountability, the

10-Year Wilderness Stewardship

Challenge helped the Forest

Service improve the

professionalism of wilderness

stewards. The Challenge created

quantitative measures,

standardized measurement

instructions, set stewardship

priorities, and provided a basis for

evaluating the stewardship of

individual wildernesses. The

quantitative, standardized design

of the Challenge also facilitated

regional efforts to review results

and follow up with Forest or

District staff on questionable

scores. Additionally, competitive

funding was available that

required an application and

accomplishment report.

Subsequent funding depended in

part on successful completion of

projects and timely reporting, in

other words, being accountable for

the funds already received. The

Challenge could have been merely

a numbers game if Forest or

District staff chose not to hold

themselves accountable for

meaningful results. Units that

took the Challenge seriously made

significant improvements in

stewardship with the additional

funding.

Overall, the Challenge improved

professional wilderness

stewardship by setting

measureable goals and creating a

means of holding managers

accountable for meeting those

goals. Regional and national

leadership used the Challenge

measures to evaluate progress and

focus their attention where it was

most needed.

The next iteration of wilderness

stewardship performance

measures will build upon the first

ten-year effort to continue to

professionalize management and

improve accountability. We can all

contribute to the success of this

process by getting involved at the

beginning and taking

responsibility for implementing the

new Wilderness Stewardship

Performance measure.

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W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

Wilderness Advisory Group News 9

Accountability In

Partnerships By Kurt Kuznicki, Associate

Director, Friends of Nevada

Wilderness

You would have to look far and

wide to find a more unique

partnership than the one between

the Humboldt-Toiyabe National

Forest (H-T) and Friends of

Nevada Wilderness (Friends). The

mission of Friends of Nevada

Wilderness is the protection and

preservation of Nevada’s wild

places. Friends has been

instrumental in the designation of

Wilderness in Nevada and has

stepped up to become an

accountable, proactive, and

effective partner in the stewardship

of these areas.

Friends and the H-T work together

to effectively manage 20

wildernesses totaling more than 1

million acres across Nevada.

Friends has similar partnerships

with the Bureau of Land

Management, U.S. Fish and

Wildlife, and the National Park

Service.

In central Nevada, where it can be

challenging to recruit volunteers

and secure funding, we have been

successful in securing grants to

hire professional trail crews, and

rallying volunteers to perform

needed trail maintenance in

wilderness on the Austin-Tonopah

Ranger Districts. Friends’ crews

have also cleared downed trees

and rebuilt tread on the popular

Bonanza Trail in the Spring

Mountains National Recreation

Area.

When most folks think of

stewardship, they mostly think of

trail work—but that’s not all we

do. Friends of Nevada Wilderness’

stewardship programs include

almost all aspects of wilderness

stewardship including recreation

site monitoring and rehabilitation,

solitude monitoring, invasive weed

management, native seedling

plantings in burned areas outside

of wilderness, and wilderness

resource monitoring. The Weed

Warrior program in the Mt. Rose

Wilderness seeks to protect the

Truckee River watershed, which

northern Nevada depends on for

clean water. Our volunteers have

worked to monitor and eradicate

invasive weeds in the Mt. Rose

Wilderness and areas outside of

wilderness. Our professional

crews have also performed

invasive weed monitoring in the

Ruby Mountains and Santa Rosa

Range.

As a testament to the

accomplishments of this

partnership and the hard work of

our volunteers, Friends of Nevada

Wilderness was awarded the Bob

Marshall Award for Group

Championship of Wilderness

Stewardship. Additionally the H-T

was able to meet the 10-year

Wilderness Stewardship Challenge

for all of its Wilderness areas! This

would not have been accomplished

without Friends stepping up to

become accountable for

stewardship of these special areas.

Here’s to many more years of

partnership!

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W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

Wilderness Advisory Group News 9

WAG 2014-2015 (left to right): Ken Straley, Peter Landres, Sam Massman, Ann Schwaller, Dan Morris, Eric Flood, Gabrielle Snider, Steve Boutcher (second row) Bjorn Fredrickson, Mary Humphries (for Chris Ham), Katie Knotek, Jennifer MacDonald: Not Pictured: Chris Ham

Region 1: Katie Knotek (Lochsa/Powell RD, Nez Perce-Clearwater NF)

(Vice Chair)

Region 2: Sam Massman (Eagle/Holy Cross RD, White River NF) (Chair)

Region 3: Eric Flood (Alpine RD, Apache-Sitgreaves NF)

Region 4: Dan Morris (Carson RD, Humboldt-Toiyabe NF)

Region 5: Bjorn Fredrickson (Palomar RD, Cleveland NF)

Region 6: Gabe Snider (Wenatchee River RD, Okanogan Wenatchee NF)

Region 8: Chris Ham (Ouachita NF)

Region 9: Ann Schwaller (Superior NF)

Region 10: Jennifer MacDonald (Sitka RD, Tongass NF)

Washington Office: Steve Boutcher (WWSR Staff)

Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center: Ken Straley

Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute: Peter Landres

The Chief’s Wilderness Advisory Group (WAG) was established in 1989 for the purpose of providing advice and counsel to

the Chief of the Forest Service, from the perspective of field level managers, on matters related to wilderness stewardship.

WAG consists of one field-based manager from each Region as well as representatives from the Washington Office, the Arthur

Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute.

WAG website: http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/rhwr/wilderness/wag/index_wag.html

Get to Know Your Local

WAG Representative

Field Uniform

Components

Although not initiated by

WAG, there are three new

uniform components in

the most recent edition of

the Forest Service

uniform catalog that may

be of interest to

wilderness employees.

These items include a

nylon/polyester/lycra

blend unisex mock

turtleneck, a Pendleton

unisex wool field shirt

and Outdoor Research

unisex cold-weather

gloves. Check them out

online in the uniform

catalog!

W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

Wilderness Advisory Group News 9

Wilderness Stewardship

Performance: Our New

Wilderness Perormance

Measure By Dan Morris, District Rec.

Officer, Carson R.D

As we complete the

10-Year Wilderness

Stewardship

Challenge (10YWSC) and

transition to the newly developed

Wilderness Stewardship

Performance (WSP), it is an

opportune time to discuss how

the WSP is designed to be more

useful and beneficial to the field.

Many managers provided

valuable feedback on the benefits

and deficiencies of the 10YWSC.

This feedback was used to build

a performance measure that is

more relevant to the needs of

wilderness field managers and in

line with our mandate to

preserve wilderness character.

Through three formal surveys

and many informal feedback

opportunities, some areas

emerged as needing to be

improved upon from the

10YWSC. Managers wanted more

flexibility in selecting the

elements that were most relevant

to their wilderness and they

wanted the performance measure

to reflect a stronger tie to the

mandate to preserve wilderness

character. In response to the

feedback, WSP is largely focused

on preserving wilderness

character, with most of the

elements tied directly to the

qualities of wilderness character.

For example, elements in the

Natural element emphasize the

importance of resources like

water, wildlife and fisheries.

WSP also provides the flexibility

to choose specific elements that

are relevant to individual

wildernesses including adding

some elements that were absent

in the 10YWSC (e.g. grazing and

culturual resources). WSP builds

on past successes to engage other

resource areas as part of

wilderness management, leading

to more holistic wilderness

management.

As a field-level manager, being

able to choose elements that are

most relevant to the wilderness I

steward, and having a more

direct tie to actions that preserve

wilderness character, makes the

WSP directly useful and relevant

for me. Ultimately it is up to all

of us to be accountable to the

wilderness, and use these tools to

create positive change, where

possible, to improve wilderness

character in the areas we manage.

(Spotlight, continued from pg. 3)

This year, the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service provided

funding to complete a wilderness

character baseline assessment for

the entire Mount Massive

Wilderness. While this is one of

the last Fish and Wildlife Service

wildernesses to implement a

wilderness character monitoring

program, it is among only a small

handful of Forest Service

wildernesses to do so. Thirty-five

measures were selected to

understand baseline conditions

and future changes to the

wilderness character of Mount

Massive Wilderness, including

metrics on the number of fish

stocking actions, non-native plant

species, authorized recreational

developments, travel route

encounters, and more. By

establishing a baseline and

monitoring the trends in these

measures and in wilderness

character as a whole, this

monitoring program will provide

information to evaluate and

improve wilderness stewardship

into the future, ensuring we are

meeting the mandate of the

Wilderness Act to preserve

wilderness character.

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W I L D E R N E S S A D V I S O R Y G R O U P

Wilderness Advisory Group News 9

Post-fire debris flow adding

sediment after an intense summer

rainstorm in 2003; Chinook salmon

spawned here in 2004.

Post-avalanche woody debris in 2014

that adult salmon successfully

navigated to spawn upstream.

(Salmon, continued from pg.5)

Today a host of Federally listed

species (Chinook salmon,

Steelhead, bull trout, and lynx)

Federal Candidate species (white-

bark pine), recently Federally de-

listed species (peregrine falcon,

bald eagle, and gray wolf) and

U.S. Forest Service Regions 1,4-

Sensitive Species (Pacific

lamprey; westslope cutthroat

trout; inland redband trout;

Columbia spotted frog; black-

backed and American three-toed

woodpeckers; boreal,

flammulated, and great gray

owls; spotted and Townsends

big-eared bats and fringed

myotis; common loon; harlequin

duck; northern goshawk;

wolverine; fisher; and several

sensitive native plants) depend

on this wilderness.

In an increasingly human-

dominated world, wilderness

managers and wildlife biologists

recognize the value of

untrammeled landscapes as

places where native fish and

wildlife and wilderness depend

on one another. Within the Frank,

salmon modify stream substrates

and provide essential nutrients

for a host of species, while

unimpeded natural processes

create diverse, high quality, and

connected habitats essential for

native species. Farley Mowat

observed this interdependency:

“….and this is why the caribou

and the wolf are one; for the

caribou feeds the wolf, the wolf

keeps the caribou strong.” At a

landscape scale in the Frank, this

interdependency is even deeper—

fish, wildlife, and other

organisms keep the wilderness

strong, just as the wilderness with

its natural disturbance processes

and diverse landscapes

strengthens them in return.

Hey Folks,

Check out

2014’s National

Forest Service

Wilderness Award

Recipients: These

individuals and

groups are leading

the way in

Wilderness

Stewardship!

Have a Great story idea

for the Summer

WagTales?

Email gsnider@fs.fed.us

with the subject heading

“My Wagtales” by

4/10/2015

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