Recognizing Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship

Several 2012 wilderness awards have been presented in the past few months. The timeline for the announcement of these goes from October 2012 to April 2013. Now is as good a time as any to recognize these folks in a unified format. The US Forest Service and National Park Service both have formalized awards for wilderness stewardship. I found no evidence that the Bureau of Land Managment or US Fish and Wildlife Service specifically acknowledge excellence in wilderness stewardship (if anyone knows conclusively, please contact me via SWS.new.media [at] gmail [dot] com and SWS will certainly acknowledge more awards).

Here's what USDA Forest Service Chief Tidwell shared in a missive dated October 31, 2012 that can be accessed here via wilderness.net:

I [Chief Tidwell] am pleased to announce the recipients of the 2012 National Wilderness Awards. These awards honor individuals and groups for excellence in wilderness stewardship and recognize outstanding endeavors toward meeting the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge. This National Award encompasses education, traditional skills and minimum tools leadership, and overall wilderness stewardship. The National Wilderness Award recipients are:

Bob Marshall Award External Champion of Wilderness Stewardship
Dave Cantrell of the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (NWSA) – Dave Cantrell was the key architect of the NWSA, the first ever national non-profit organization developed solely for the purpose of creating and supporting wilderness volunteer groups across America. He has worked tirelessly as both a member and a leader to promote stewardship issues. Dave became the Chairperson of NWSA in 2010, and quickly set in motion the Alliance’s mission to make NWSA the preeminent wilderness stewardship organization it is today. His vision and goals are to have a wilderness or friends group for each of the 700 plus wildernesses in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

NWSA

Bob Marshall Award Internal Champion of Wilderness Stewardship
Adam Barnett, former Chair of the Chief’s Wilderness Advisory Group – Adam Barnett has served on the Wilderness Advisory Group since 2008, and served as Chair from 2010-2011. Adam was able to secure $1.5 million in additional funds for fiscal year (FY) 2011 to support the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge. His successes and advocacy also resulted in $2.9 million in additional funding for the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge for FY 2012. His work on the Stanislaus National Forest as the wilderness manager has been exemplary. His work was vital in the resurrection of the
Pacific Southwest Regional Wilderness Ranger Academy.

Adam Barnett

Bob Marshall Award for Group Champion of Wilderness Stewardship
Santa Fe/Carson Wilderness Stewardship Task Force – In the spring of 2011, the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests jointly applied for and received funding grant to work on the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge. This task force worked across both forests to manage the combined seven wildernesses to minimum stewardship levels or above. The primary focus was campsite inventory, invasive plants, and encounter monitoring. The strike teams collected data on campsites, damaged trees, disturbed areas, administrative structures, distance to water, latitude and longitude, and other specific location descriptors. They also implemented a Wilderness Education Plan that included weed flyers, Leave No Trace trainings, and other activities as a part of their public education and outreach. The task force’s passion and hard work was important to the success of the project and has elevated wilderness stewardship in the region.

Bob Marshall Award for Partnership Champion in Wilderness Stewardship
Rob Mason and Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Church Foundation – In 2006, the Selway-Bitterroot Foundation (SBF) was established to assist the Nez Perce, Clearwater, and Bitterroot National Forests in completing critical trail work. In 2009 Rob Mason was hired as the Executive Director. The SBF has worked with three National Forests and five ranger districts to develop and implement work plans. SBF has logged more than 28,000 volunteer hours, worth over $570,000. During field season they removed over 40,150 pounds of trash from the Seminole Ranch Homestead. They have worked collaboratively with a wide variety of organizations such as Back Country Horsemen, National Smoke Jumpers, Sierra Club, Montana Wilderness Association, The Wilderness Society, Montana Conservation Corps, and AmeriCorps to accomplish projects. Thanks to Rob Mason, SBF has grown from a fledgling group of volunteers to a major force in wilderness stewardship in the region.

Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation 

Traditional Skills and Minimum Tool Leadership Award
Wayne Chevalier, Willamette National Forest, McKenzie River Ranger District – Wayne has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to using traditional tools in wilderness for over 22 years. He has helped to maintain and preserve the wilderness character of over 260 miles of trail in the Three Sisters and Mount Washington Wilderness areas by strictly using traditional skills and tools. He has been the crew leader for numerous projects including complex bridge building and structure development. Under his leadership his trail crew has never used a motorized tool in the wilderness areas of the McKenzie River District.

Wilderness Education Leadership Award
Pack Creek Rangers, Admiralty National Monument, Tongass National Forest – Harry Tullis, Don MacDougal, Dori Brogliano, Deven Hafey, John Neary, Chad Rice, Carl Koch, and Jane Pascoeare are being recognized for educating visitors about Admiralty’s brown bears and the unique wilderness settings in which they are found. It is the only brown bear viewing area found in a congressionally-designated wilderness. The Pack Creek Rangers ability to blend the missions of the Forest Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has been outstanding. The Pack Creek Rangers have used many innovations to instruct visitors, commercial operators, teachers, students, and researchers. They have instituted student intern programs, headed teachers’ expeditions, collaborated eagerly amongst divergent agencies, developed educational outfitter and guide manuals, completed extensive trail repairs, monitored special permit usage, and facilitated the selection of new outfitters and guides. Their efforts comprise a significant contribution to wilderness education.

Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Research Award
Ann Schwaller, Robert G. Dvorak, Alan Watson, Neal Christensen, William T.Borrie, U.S. Forest Service, Superior National Forest, Rocky Mountain Research Station, and the University of Montana – “The Boundary Waters Canoe Areas Wilderness(BWCAW): Examining changes in use, users, and management challenges.” This collaborative research paper was completed to determine trends in use and user characteristics in the BWCAW. The research is focused on trends for visitor demographics, age, education, gender, previous wilderness experience, frequency of wilderness trips, trip characteristics, group size and composition, length of trips, and number of groups seen. This important research will help the Forest Service be more effective in addressing wilderness stewardship and meeting the intent of the Wilderness Act, the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge, and forest plan standards.

Dvorak et al. 2012

Excellence in Research Application Award
Trent Procter, Mike McCorison, Suraj Ahuja, Ricardo Cisneros, Don Schweizer, Andrea Nick, and Glen Shaw-Pacific Southwest Region Air Quality Program – This team is being recognized for their hard work in bringing 61 wilderness areas up to passing Element 3 of the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge regarding air quality monitoring. In the beginning of 2011, only 12 of the 61 wildernesses in the region were passing Element 3. Due to the team’s hard work and efficiently creative approaches, all 61 are now being managed to a 6 or 10. Not only were their plans a product of applied research that will guide the region’s wilderness areas for years to come but, in performance, they helped to make an incredible jump in accomplishing the region’s goals. Their research will continue to support the region. The team’s ability to work as an interdisciplinary unit has proven to be very successful as a wilderness resource and is highly valued in applying science and technology to field operations.

Excellence in Line Officer Wilderness Leadership
Lee Benson, Yakutat Ranger District, Tongass National Forest – Lee Benson is being recognized for the leadership he exhibited in working with the district and the forest wilderness managers to accomplish a rise in score for the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge in the Russell Fiord Wilderness. He worked closely with staff and managers to determine the highest priority work needed to meet the challenge. His personal engagement and leadership was a major factor in raising the score for the Russell Fiord Wilderness from 56 in 2010 to 74 in 2011. Lee’s strong and effective leadership has been shared with other district rangers and wilderness managers as a model for how line officers can work with wilderness managers to meet the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge.

The National Park Service announced its awards in an online announcement that was last updated April 8, 2013 which can be accessed here via the NPS.

The Wes Henry National Wilderness Stewardship Award recognizes outstanding contributions to wilderness stewardship by an individual or group. The National Park Service is honored to recognize the 2012 recipients:

Individual Award
Suzy Stutzman
Intermountain Region wilderness coordinator

Stutzman inspired National Park Service staff throughout the country to realize that wilderness stewardship is a part of everyone's job.

For nearly a decade, Stutzman championed the inclusion of wilderness stewardship into superintendents' performance plans throughout the region and helped integrate wilderness stewardship into park operations. She promoted wilderness awareness and assisted parks with the implementation of strategic tools like the minimum requirements analysis. She chaired the region's Wilderness Executive Committee and, as a key member of the national Wilderness Character Integration Team, she co-authored the newly revised NPS Wilderness Stewardship Plan Handbook.

Recognizing the importance of communicating wilderness benefits to the public, Stutzman helped develop the Ambassadors for Wilderness program at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Her work to develop the Wilderness Junior Ranger program and booklet, which was adopted and implemented by several parks and more recently by interagency partners, has helped cultivate a new generation of wilderness stewards.

Suzy Stutzman

Group Award
Wilderness Character Integration Team

This national interdisciplinary team provided leadership for incorporating wilderness character in park planning, management, and monitoring processes. Led by Peter Landres, of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, and Suzy Stutzman, Intermountain regional wilderness coordinator, the team devoted extensive energy and time toward inspiring a new direction for national park wilderness preservation. Their work has led to a greater understanding of, and a deeper commitment to, preserving wilderness character throughout the national park system.

The Wilderness Character Integration Team developed two key products: the document Keeping it Wild in the National Park Service: A user guide to integrating wilderness character into park planning, management, and monitoring, and the newly revised NPS Wilderness Stewardship Plan Handbook.

Wilderness parks pilot tested these products and provided critical input that informed further refinement for the final versions. The accomplishments embodied within these documents and other work of the WCIT provide invaluable resources and direction for years ahead in ensuring the preservation of wilderness character.

The Wilderness Character Integration Team:
Mike Bilecki, chief of resource management, Fire Island National Seashore
Carol Cook, program analyst, park planning and special studies, Washington office
Sarah Craighead, superintendent, Mammoth Cave National Park
Jeremy Curtis, chief of maintenance, Chiricahua National Monument / Ft. Bowie National Historic Site
Tim Devine, wilderness stewardship division, Washington office, Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center
Sandee Dingman, biologist, Lake Mead National Recreation Area
Michael Haynie, ranger, Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Chris Holbeck, natural resource program manager, Midwest regional office
Chip Jenkins, deputy regional director, resource stewardship and planning, Pacific West regional office
Peter Landres, ecologist, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service
Adrienne Lindholm, regional wilderness coordinator, Alaska regional office
Melissa Memory, chief of cultural resources, Everglades and Dry Tortugas national parks
Christina Mills, wilderness fellow, wilderness stewardship division, Washington office
Ray O'Neil, ranger, Zion National Park
Ruth Scott, wilderness specialist, Olympic National Park
Miki Stuebe, environmental protection specialist, environmental quality division, natural resource stewardship and science
Suzy Stutzman, regional wilderness coordinator, Intermountain regional office
Karen Trevino, director, natural sounds and night skies program, natural resource stewardship and science
Frank Turina, planner, natural resource stewardship and science
Wade Vagias, management assistant, Yellowstone National Park

Wilderness Character Integration Team

Congrats, Kyle, from your pals at SWS!

Glacier National Park Media Release

February 13, 2012
Denise Germann 406 888-5838
MEDIA12-6

Columbia Falls Native Recognized as Wilderness Champion

WEST GLACIER, MONT. –Glacier National Park Wilderness Specialist Kyle Johnson was recently awarded the National Park Service Intermountain Region Wilderness Champion Award. Johnson was recognized as an outstanding wilderness steward and leader for his role in promoting wilderness accountability, consistency and continuity at Glacier National Park and throughout the agency.

Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright said, “Kyle is a stalwart protector of Glacier’s wilderness values, and embodies the wilderness spirit. He is respected for his knowledge, expertise and leadership as a wilderness specialist, and we are very fortunate to have him at Glacier.”

Johnson is a teacher and mentor to those seeking to increase their knowledge and skills in the wild. He developed and instructs the park’s interagency wilderness training for back-country rangers and volunteers. He has worked with the University of Montana to create a unique and successful wilderness ranger internship position at the park. His expertise with traditional tools in wilderness is shared with others as he teaches at interagency workshops and college courses.

Johnson oversees the back-country permit program at the park and is a leader in teaching Leave-No-Trace principles and practices. The park’s back-country volunteer program is successful with Johnson’s leadership. His work with the volunteer program directly impacts the quality of the wilderness visitor experience and has contributed to thousands of educational contacts. He also is very involved in the joint river management of the Flathead River with the Flathead National Forest.

Johnson’s expertise is also utilized on a regional and national level within the National Park Service. He has created monitoring tools and visitor information programs that have been used across the agency, as well as contributions to agency policy on wilderness management.

In response to the recognition, Johnson said, “I’m honored to work at Glacier National Park and be recognized for my role in protection of this special place. The job we have as stewards is bigger than one individual and I’m fortunate to work with a great team at the park.” Johnson, a 31-year veteran of Glacier National Park, is a native of Columbia Falls. He resides in Columbia Falls with his wife Mary and two children, Parker and Ellie.

-NPS-

A sad day and great loss to the wilderness community...

From: George Nickas, Executive Director, Wilderness Watch
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 6:33 PM

Dear friends:

It is with great sadness that Wilderness Watch announces the death of Bill Worf, our founder, long-time board member, president emeritus, and inspirational leader. He was 85. Bill died of natural causes at his home in Missoula, Montana.

Bill dedicated his life to making certain the ideals expressed in the Wilderness Act would live on in the National Wilderness Preservation System. No one alive, then or now, worked as hard or with such great principle toward that goal.

Bill was raised on a homestead in Rosebud County, Montana, during the Great Depression where he learned the lessons of hard work and perseverance that were hallmarks of his life. He joined the Marines at 17, and soon found himself in the thick of combat in the invasion of Iwo Jima. After the war, he returned home, married Eva Jean Batey, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from the University of Montana, and started a storied 32-year-career with the U.S. Forest Service.

Bill began his 50-year affair with wilderness in 1961 when he was appointed forest supervisor overseeing the Bridger Wilderness in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. In typical fashion, Bill jumped into wilderness stewardship with a fervor that attracted the attention of all around him. He initiated the first wilderness management program and hired the first wilderness rangers. He became an outspoken proponent for the wilderness bill at a time when the Forest Service was lukewarm to the legislation. His advocacy for wilderness led the Chief of the Forest Service to select Bill as one of a small group to write the regulations and policies for implementing the Wilderness Act of 1964 shortly after it passed. Bill was then asked to lead the agency's wilderness program in the Washington Office, which he did for many years before getting his feet back on the ground in the regional office in Missoula, Montana.

Like many of his peers, Bill initially saw wilderness as a recreation resource. He saw his duties as a manager primarily to promote it as a backcountry playground. He often told the story of standing on the shore of Island Lake, gazing out at hordes of tents surrounding that wilderness gem. "We were making use of the country, and it made my Forest Service-heart swell with pride," Bill would recall with a laugh. But a pack trip with the Wilderness Act's author, Howard Zahniser, started an evolution in Bill's understanding. Wilderness stewardship was about much more than recreation. His understanding continued to grow as he worked with congressional leaders and their staffs while writing the policies to implement that visionary law.
As Bill often noted, "Those of us writing the policies had to forget much of what we knew about wilderness management in order to understand the higher goals the Wilderness Act was trying to achieve."

Upon his retirement from the US Forest Service in 1981 and with the active support of Eva Jean, Bill vowed to dedicate his remaining years to working for sound stewardship and protection of Wilderness.

In 1989, he and two colleagues founded Wilderness Watch, the only national citizens' organization dedicated solely to protecting designated wildernesses and wild rivers. As a measure of Bill's tremendous credibility, it wasn't long before former Secretary of Interior, Stewart Udall, and former Secretary of Agriculture, Orville Freeman, accepted Bill's invitation to join the Wilderness Watch Board of Directors. Bill remained active with Wilderness Watch and wilderness issues until his death. "I shall not perish from this earth without doing everything within my realm to save its most precious non-human resource," he wrote.

Bill was the right person in the right place at the right time, and he made the most of it. He inspired an entire generation of wilderness rangers and wilderness advocates and was a hero to many.

All of us, but especially future generations of American citizens, are the fortunate recipients of Bill's dedication to the wilderness cause.

Bill Worf will be sorely missed, but his spirit lives on in all those who believe in the principled stewardship and defense of wilderness in America.

George Nickas
Executive Director
Wilderness Watch

Training for Wilderness Pros

With another field season in the books it's time to look ahead (with a small peek over the shoulder for good measure). The backwards glance is to June 2010 and a week-long training session in the High Uintas Wilderness. Nearly a dozen Wilderness Rangers donned heavy packs and hiked northeastern Utah's high country learning the rudiments of trail maintenance, contacting visitors and developing wilderness skills...


Skill development is particularly apropos looking ahead to 2012 and the Society for Wilderness Stewardship's flagship program, the tentatively titled Wilderness Ranger Academy. Designed in conjunction with the Carhart Wilderness Training Center, the course is expected to feature online, classroom and field modules including Travel & Safety, Visitor Use Management and Resource Stewardship.

While it won't replace local unit training and orientation, the 4-6 week academy will eventually offer an accreditation/certificate which should give graduates a competitive advantage in the job market. With field sessions including map/compass/gps training, crosscut saw certification and river crossing techniques it sounds like a lot of fun too!

And so as Summer 2011 dissolves in the rear-view we're excited about offering wilderness professionals a comprehensive program of training and development sometime before 2013 nicks the horizon. Stay tuned...

Water or wilderness - Why not both?

Battles over water in the west continue. This time it involves the Arkansas River in Colorado. This past week, The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy Board voted 13-1 in opposition of federal expansion of wilderness areas in the Arkansas River basin. The Board has no current plans but is concerned that wilderness designation will prohibit future water development. What does this mean for wilderness?

Read full article here: http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5370177/conservancy-boards-wary-of-wilderness-laws

Using fire as a management tool in wilderness

A fire in the Washakie Wilderness southwest of Meeteetse, WY has burned 15,000 acres since it was started by lightning on July 22. It's been a slow moving fire that agency personnel have let burn as a "resource benefit" to help thin out stands of beetle killed trees. It's good to see this kind of wilderness management in action. The wilderness gets what it needs and it continues to reinforce to the public that not all wildfire is a bad thing.

From an article in the Billings Gazette:

CODY, Wyo. — After a lengthy period of inactivity, the Norton Point fire heated up again last week, sending smoke and ash into the Bighorn Basin. Burning in the Washakie Wilderness southwest of Meeteetse, the fire has burned 15,000 acres since it was started by lightning on July 22. The blaze had seen little growth since the beginning of August. But late last week, winds drove the fire back into heavy timber, allowing for additional growth.

“It was inactive for quite a while,” said public information officer Carl Jungck. “But just last Thursday, the conditions lined back up with the wind.” On its most active day last week, the fire made another run up Caldwell Creek, burning around 1,700 acres. Since then, the blaze has slowed, with cooler temperatures in the forecast.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_29d49b6b-db1d-5d3f-8d84-549bf3423258.html#ixzz1VCSjvSMS

The Wilderness Act and the pine beetle battle

To save trees or to honor the intent of the Wilderness Act? This is the question.



Linda Merigliano, with the U.S. Forest Service, removes old verbenone patches on trees near Goodwin Lake in the Gros Ventre Wilderness on July 30. The patches, which were placed by TreeFight volunteers last year, have to be removed from trees each year. TreeFight is working with Merigliano and the Forest Service on balancing the issue of saving the trees while still honoring wilderness areas.

BRIDGER-TETON NATIONAL FOREST — Nestled in the Gros Ventre Wilderness, only a few miles from a trail head, Goodwin Lake attracts hikers on their way to Jackson Peak, families on overnight backpacking trips and fishermen staking out their favorite spots. It is an escape from Teton County’s more popular destinations.

The shore winds large enough for visitors to claim their own space. Prime real estate, though, is on a rocky peninsula with a landmark whitebark pine tree.

On July 28, David Gonzales cut into the bark and read the tree’s death sentence in the form of signs of pine beetle chambers. Then the founder of TreeFight sat with other volunteer members to discuss joint efforts with the U.S. Forest Service to save trees like this one in wilderness areas.

TreeFight is a volunteer organization that staples pheromone pouches onto whitebark pines to deter beetles that otherwise might burrow in and kill trees. Last year, in the group’s first summer, they placed the patches on trees near Goodwin Lake without thinking of the area’s wilderness status.

The federal Wilderness Act, established in 1964, includes the language “untrammeled.” It means wilderness is meant to remain as free as possible of human influence, said Linda Merigliano with the Forest Service. The act calls for allowing insect and plant diseases to run their course, to even avoid fire suppression unless it is human-caused.


Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_80409a5e-25e3-5802-ab0a-91f6db65e5d4.html#ixzz1UZ4kEN7h

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_80409a5e-25e3-5802-ab0a-91f6db65e5d4.html