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how Wilderness is an outdated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.
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
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 [email protected]
with the subject heading
“My Wagtales” by
4/10/2015
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