Would ecological landscape restoration make the Bandelier Wilderness more or less of a wilderness?

Product Type: Journal Article

Year: 2000

Author(s): Sydoriak, C.A., C.D. Allen, and B.F. Jacobs

Suggested Citation:
Sydoriak, C.A., C.D. Allen, and B.F. Jacobs. 2000. Would ecological landscape restoration make the Bandelier Wilderness more or less of a wilderness?. Wild Earth 10(4): 83-90.

Abstract

Is it appropriate to intervene in designated wilderness areas that have been “trammeled by man” and, as a result, no longer retain their “primeval character and influence” as called for in the 1964 Wilderness Act? We explore this wilderness management dilemma--whether we can or should actively manage wilderness conditions to restore and protect wilderness and other values--by asking a series of questions relating to a wilderness area that is no longer “natural.” Debate on this issue is not new, but is intensifying, since most wilderness areas in the continental United States are not pristine and ecosystem research has shown that conditions in many are deteriorating. Our case-study is a proposed large-scale project to restore pinon-juniper woodlands in the Bandelier Wilderness, which comprises more than 23,000 acres in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico…