Wilderness Visitor Experiences

The Wilderness Visitor Experience Workshop was held at the Lubrecht Experimental Forest near Missoula, MT, April 4-7, 2011. The science and management of wilderness visitors is now more than half a century old. Much has been learned over this period. And yet it seems that enthusiasm for recreation research generally and for wilderness visitor science specifically has been waning recently. With the 50th Anniversary of The Wilderness Act approaching in 2014, it seemed timely to celebrate and capture what has been learned over the past 50 years. We also wanted to revitalize this research tradition and prepare for the next half century of visitor experience research and stewardship. For three days, twenty-one scientists and managers gave presentations and discussed important topics. The original idea for the workshop was to comprehensively survey the breadth of research on wilderness visitor experience, such that these proceedings would provide a state-of-knowledge on this topic. Indeed, a number of the papers produced are comprehensive reviews. Some participants, however, chose to present empirical papers, without comprehensive reviews, and others presented original essays suggesting important avenues for wilderness research. The result is a collection of reviews, empirical research and personal essays that provide a rich (if not comprehensive) overview of the past, present and future of wilderness visitor experience research. Prior to the workshop, a number of driving issues and questions emerged. A number revolved around the issue of the nature of wilderness experiences and their stewardship. Specific questions under this topic included: Are wilderness experiences unique? How are high quality wilderness experiences best described? What are we managing for? Do we manage wilderness conditions regardless of the experiences people seek? What attributes most influence experience quality and how should we define thresholds for these attributes? How can management protect against threats and/or enhance experiences? How much should managers intervene to manage for "ideal" experiences? The workshop was convened to celebrate and review 50 years of research on wilderness visitor experience and its influence on wilderness stewardship. These proceedings are organized in three sections. The first section contains 12 papers that review literature or describe empirical research about wilderness visitor experiences. The second section provides three papers on management frameworks and the perspectives of planners and managers. The third section consists of five papers on wilderness experiences and the future.