What are Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWCs)? How did we map LWCs? How did GIS mapping and analysis help mapping LWCs? How do you protect LWCs?

GIS Support for MappingBureau of Land

ManagementLands with Wilderness

Characteristics

Alison GallenskyRocky Mountain Wild

Society for Conservation GIS July 2015 2

Presentation Outline• What are Lands with

Wilderness Characteristics (LWCs)?• How did we map LWCs?• How did GIS mapping and

analysis help mapping LWCs?• How do you protect LWCs?• Lessons Learned

Photo: Munger Creek, Colorado, by Soren Jespersen


What are Lands with WildernessCharacteristics?• 1964 Wilderness Act• Public Land Agencies: USFS, NPS, USFWS, BLM• Characteristics of Wilderness

• Size (absence of roads)• Naturalness• Solitude• Supplemental Values

• Wilderness areas can only be designated by an act of Congress• BLM’s current guidance is inventory Lands with Wilderness

Characteristics and to consider protecting them.


How did we map LWCs?• Who are we? Conservation organizations working in

Colorado: • Conservation Colorado• Pew Charitable Trusts• Rocky Mountain Wild• Wild Connections• The Wilderness Society• Wilderness Workshop

• Field work done by paid staff, interns, and volunteers• Mappers took georeferenced photos

• To record presence or absence of wilderness characteristics• To determine if routes were roads or primitive routes


Tools Used to Map LWCs• Google Earth• iPad Mini’s or other small

tablets with GPS with Apps:• MotionX GPS (view GPX data

and collect waypoints and tracks)

• Gaia GPS (good background maps/imagrery that can be viewed while in the field)

• GeoJot+ (custom forms for data collection and report generation)


How did GIS mapping and analysis help mapping LWCs?• GIS is used to find unroaded areas of sufficient size to

help determine where to map• Share data between field mappers and GIS person to

determine LWC boundary• GIS is used to determine supplemental values such as

wildlife and riparian areas within the LWCs found• GIS is used to create maps for reports to agency and

for public outreach


Roadless Analysis• 5,000 acre minimum

(with exceptions)• Includes adjacent lands

with wilderness characteristics (don’t forget cross-agency and cross border)• What is a road?• Naming areas• Prioritization


Data Sharing• Before mapping• Google Earth data• GPX Data (ArcGIS and

GPSBabel for conversion)

• After Mapping• Photopoints• Features that

determine the boundary• Boundaries• Acreages


LWC Maps


Another Example (Wyoming)


Supplemental Values• LWCs may “contain ecological,

geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.”

• Rocky Mountain Wild’s Assessment of Biological Impact (ABI) Screen Tool identifies supplemental values.

• Hundreds of datasets with ranges, habitat areas, occurrences, and important landscapes for over a thousand species.

• Output is a spreadsheet report• Maps help folks writing reports and

comments


How do you protectLWCs?• Present the report to the BLM• Tour areas with BLM, press, and

the public• Advocate for recognition of areas

not included in BLM’s inventory• Advocate for protective

management of LWC areas• Determine other appropriate

designations• Areas of Critical Environmental

Concern• Recreation Management Areas

(including areas for quiet recreation)


Report to BLM


Successes• Little Snake Field Office• Far northwestern corner of Colorado• Initially argued that they did not need to do an LWC inventory• The results of our roadless analysis and advocacy convinced

them to do an inventory that identified over 500,000 acres of lands with wilderness characteristics

• White River Field Office• South of Little Snake Field Office• Initially found less than 80,000 acres of LWCs• Conservation groups identified about 320,000 acres• BLM revised their inventory to over 300,000 acres


Lessons Learned• Protecting wild lands cannot be

done by government agencies (or conservation groups) alone• GIS technology can be part of a

powerful campaign to influence land protection• Current technology allows

distributed teams to work well together• Low cost solutions allow small

non-profits to have a large impact

Soren Jespersen of The Wilderness Society, left, works with Will Roush of Wilderness Workshop to inventory lands for wilderness characteristics.


GIS Support for MappingBureau of Land ManagementLands with Wilderness Characteristics

• Alison Gallensky• Email: [email protected]

• Rocky Mountain Wild• Phone: 303-546-0214• Webpage: http://rockymountainwild.org

• For More Information and to Download this Presentation: • http://rockymountainwild.org/gis/gis-projects/lwc

Documents

What are Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWCs)? How did we map LWCs? How did GIS mapping and analysis help mapping LWCs? How do you protect LWCs?