Figure 3.8 



National Wilderness Preservation System, September 1, 1979 



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public land administered by the Bureau of Land 

 Management have been designated wilderness. As a 

 result of past land development patterns (or more 

 precisely, the lack of development), the designated 

 wilderness areas are concentrated in western States. 

 However, lands within the system, and those under 

 review and study, include areas from all of the major 

 forest and range land ecosystems represented in the 

 United States (table 3.13). 



Recreational use of wilderness — In 1978, the 

 National Forest wildernesses received more than 8 

 million recreation visitor days of use or 4 percent of 

 all National Forest System recreation visitor days. 

 Recreation use on National Park and National Wild- 

 life Refuge wildernesses amounted to another several 

 hundred thousand recreation visitor days. 



Wilderness recreation use must be kept at low den- 

 sity levels if unmodified natural conditions are to be 

 protected and if "outstanding opportunities for soli- 

 tude," as described in the Wilderness Act, are to be 



maintained. Present use of National Forest wilder- 

 ness units amounts to about one-half of a recreation 

 visitor day per acre per year. Wilderness managers of 

 different areas experiencing varying use pressures 

 suggest this average may be close to a desirable upper 

 Hmit for some wildernesses. Carrying capacity, how- 

 ever, is influenced by many factors, such as length of 

 season, number of access points, abundance of trails, 

 or other travel routes, number of camping areas, 

 attractions, fragility of soils and vegetation, and the 

 presence of wildlife sensitive to human use pressures. 

 The intensity of use varies greatly from wilderness 

 to wilderness. Two National Forest wildernesses each 

 reported about 1 million recreation visitor days of use 

 in 1978 — The John Muir Wilderness in California 

 and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota. 

 In contrast, some wildernesses had only a few thou- 

 sand recreation visitor days of use. Estimated visitor 

 days per acre per year varied in 1978 from a high of 

 about 7 to a low of 0.04. Even allowing for variation 



101 



