*************************************************** 

 

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HOW DO AMERICANS VIEW 

WILDERNESS 

A WILDERNESS Research Report in the IRIS Series1

January, 2008

H. Ken Cordell, Carter J. Betz, J. Mark Fly, Shela Mou, and 

Gary T. Green 2

 

1

 The Internet Research Information Series (IRIS) is an internet accessible science report series covering 

outdoor recreation statistics (RECSTATS), wilderness research (WILDERNESS) and other humandimension and demographics research (DEMOSTATS) related to natural resources. This research is a 

collaborative effort between the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station and its Forestry 

Sciences Laboratory in Athens, Georgia; the University of Georgia in Athens; and the University of 

Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. http://warnell.forestry.uga.edu/nrrt/nsre/IrisReports.html 2

 The authors are H. Ken Cordell, Pioneering Scientist, Carter J. Betz, Outdoor Recreation Planner, and 

Shela Mou, Computer Assistant, USDA Forest Service; J. Mark Fly, Professor, University of Tennessee at 

Knoxville; and Gary T. Green, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia. Iris photo is courtesy of Jessica 

Mou. 

 

IRIS 

Internet Research 

Information Series 
ii

Table of Contents 

Page 

Introduction- What is Wilderness? ............................................................................1

Where did the data come from?...............................................................................1 

 What is meant by “Wilderness Values?”.................................................................2 

What do Americans Think is Most Important about Wilderness?.........................4 

Are Urbanites Different from Ruralites? ..................................................................5 

Does Region of the Country Matter? .........................................................................7 

Are Americans’ Viewpoints Changing?.....................................................................9 

Do Citizens Want More Wilderness?.........................................................................9 

Summary.....................................................................................................................11 

Next Reports...............................................................................................................11 

References...................................................................................................................11 

TABLES 

Table 1--Wilderness Values: Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older who 

said extremely or very important with 95% confidence interval, by 

year of NSRE interview................................................................................4 

Table 2--Wilderness Values: Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older who 

 said extremely or very important, by place of residence...........................6

Table 3--Wilderness Values: Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older who 

 said extremely or very important, by Census region.................................7 

Table 4--Attitudes about the amount of land Congress has designated as 

wilderness. Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older with 95% 

confidence interval, by year of NSRE interview ......................................10 

Table 5-- Attitudes about designating more of the federal lands as 

 wilderness in the respondent's home state. Percent of U.S. 

 residents age 16 and older with 95% confidence interval, by year 

 of NSRE interview.......................................................................................10
1

Introduction-What is Wilderness? 

 

In 1964, the U.S. Congress voted to establish the National Wilderness Preservation 

System (NWPS). The vote was virtually unanimous. This legislation was enacted to 

permanently protect some of the most undisturbed federal natural lands in the United 

States. At its birth, the NWPS included just 54 areas and a little over 9.1 million acres. 

The Congress has since added hundreds more areas and millions more acres, increasing 

the NWPS to 702 areas and over 107 million acres. For the most part, these are the 

wildest of federal lands in the Nation (Wilderness.net at 

http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm). 

 

Most of the additions since the original ones in 1964 came in the years soon after the 

original designations. But as the U.S. population, elected government representatives and 

federal land management agency personnel have changed, not only have additions been 

made more slowly, but also questions increasingly arise about designating more 

Wilderness. Increasingly, commercial and development interests are seeking access to 

federal lands. This could make new designations more contentious. As we continue our 

journey through the 21st Century, the unfolding drama of trends, such as population 

growth, urbanization, and global climate change, will undoubtedly shift the playing field 

for all sides of the Wilderness designation debate. What this shift will mean for new 

Wilderness remains to be seen. 

With a shifting playing field, the people with decision making power and those who work 

around these decision makers need to know what American citizens think about 

Wilderness. This I-Research Information Series (IRIS) Report is based on original survey 

research that focused on what American's see as valuable about protected Wilderness. 

The intended primary audiences are the policy makers, land management agencies, nongovernmental organizations, political officials and those who influence decision makers. 

This report is published with the view that up-to-date public values research is essential at 

any level when Wilderness designation and management are being considered. 

Where did the data come from? 

The Forest Service research group located in Athens, Georgia has been collecting data 

and producing reports about the attitudes and values of Americans since the 1980s. A 

primary part of this data collection effort has been the National Survey on Recreation and 

the Environment (NSRE). The NSRE is an ongoing series of surveys that began in 1960 

as the National Recreation Survey (NRS). The U.S. Department of Interior managed the 

NRS between 1965 and the mid-1980s. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Forest Service 

assumed science management of this nationwide research project in collaboration with 

other federal agencies and universities. The NSRE has provided federal and state 

agencies, educational institutions, and the private sector, with outdoor recreation trend 

and demand data on local, regional and national scales since the first NRS in 1960.<p> 

The NSRE is a general population, random-digit-dialed household telephone survey 

designed primarily to measure outdoor recreation and environmental attitudes of 
2

Americans. This is accomplished by surveying a random, cross-sectional sample of noninstitutionalized residents of the United States, 16 years of age and older. The Human 

Dimensions Research Laboratory at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, an on-going 

NSRE cooperator, conducts the survey almost daily. The system is computer-assisted 

(CATI) so the trained interviewers work from a computer monitor and the data are 

automatically entered as telephone interviews are conducted. The average length of an 

interview is restricted to a maximum length of 14 minutes. 

The NSRE is a major interagency effort. Depending on timing, the survey may meet the 

data needs of several sponsoring agencies and organizations. The agencies/organizations 

typically include the Forest Service (Department of Agriculture); the Bureau of Land 

Management and National Park Service (Department of the Interior); the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Department of Commerce); the United States 

Coast Guard; and the Environmental Protection Agency. State, local, and special purpose 

governments related to recreation and forest management are also users of NSRE. Many 

state governments use NSRE data for their respective Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor 

Recreation Plans (SCORP). 

The most recent rounds (versions) of the NSRE were conducted between late fall of 2006 

and October 2007. Included in these rounds were questions about what Americans see as 

the values derived from protection of federal wildlands as Wilderness. All data used in 

this report were weighted to assure the demographic profiles of survey respondents match 

those of the U. S. population 16 years old or older. They have been statistically analyzed 

using widely accepted statistical approaches. Confidence intervals at the 95-percent 

confidence level were computed for each percentage shown in the tables that follow. Any 

two percentages in any of the tables can be compared. If the confidence intervals (plus or 

minus ranges) of percentages being compared do not overlap, they may be considered 

significantly different statistically. Two additional reports based on NSRE Wilderness 

values data, Parts II and III, will be written and made available in the near future. 

 

What is Meant by "Wilderness Values?" 

 

One of the primary sets of questions included in recent rounds of the NSRE asked 

respondents (16 years of age or older) about their attitudes toward the National 

Wilderness Preservation System. Basically the survey asked respondents what they see 

that is of value in protection of some of the federal wildlands as Wilderness. Thus, 

"Values", as used here, refers to those aspects or benefits of Wilderness people perceive 

as important. A values scale was adopted from early work by Haas et al (1986) to 

measure how important each of 13 values were to respondents. Applications of this value 

scale for Wilderness have been published previously (Cordell et al 2003 and Cordell et al 

2005). 

Questioning regarding Wilderness values were preceded by a preamble describing the 

National Wilderness Preservation System to better assure the respondent understood what 

was being asked. Read was the following: 
3

"The 702 legally designated wilderness areas that make up the National 

Wilderness Preservation System contain over 4 percent of the United 

States total land area, including Alaska. Each of these designated areas is 

protected to keep it as wild and natural as possible." 

A second part of this preamble was read to help the respondent understand the response 

options they were being asked to consider. The interviewer read: 

"Wilderness areas provide a variety of benefits for different people. For 

each benefit I read, please tell me whether it is extremely important, very 

important, moderately important, slightly important, or not important at 

all to you as a reason to preserve wilderness and primitive areas." 

Then respondents were asked to rate the importance of 13 Wilderness benefits: 

 

Protecting water quality 

Knowing that future generations will have Wilderness areas 

Providing recreation opportunities 

Protecting wildlife habitat 

Providing spiritual inspiration 

Preserving natural areas for scientific study 

Preserving unique wild plants and animals 

Knowing that in the future I will have the option to visit a Wilderness area 

or primitive area of my choice 

Protecting air quality 

Providing income for the tourist industry 

Protecting rare and endangered species 

Providing scenic beauty 

Just knowing that Wilderness and primitive areas exist

Finally respondents were asked how they felt about the amount of federal land in the 

Wilderness System. 

Do you think that the amount of land the Congress has designated as 

wilderness is not enough, about the right amount, or too much? 

And 

How do you feel about designating more of the federal lands in your state 

as wilderness? Would you say you strongly or somewhat favor, neither 

favor nor oppose, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose? 
4

What do Americans Think is Most Important about Wilderness? 

 

The column of numbers labeled 2006-2007 in Table 1 shows the estimated current 

percentages of Americans who indicated each of the 13 values listed above are important. 

Two values stand out because over 90 percent said they are very or extremely important. 

These are protection of air quality and of water quality. Wilderness includes natural lands 

with creeks and rivers flowing from them that provide natural filters to make air and 

water clean. Four additional values stand out also because over 80 percent indicated very 

to extremely important. These include protecting wildlife habitat, knowing that future 

generations will have Wilderness to visit (bequest value), protecting rare and endangered 

plant and animal species, and preserving unique wild plants and animals. In this survey, 

rare and endangered refers to legally designated species under the Endangered Species 

Act. 

Table 1--Wilderness Values: Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older who said 

extremely or very important with 95% confidence interval, by year of NSRE 

interview.

Wilderness Value 

1999-2000 

95% C. I.1

2006-2007

95% C. I.1

Statistically 

significant 

difference2

Protecting air quality 91.8 

(91.0, 92.5) 

93.0 

(91.9, 94.0) 

No 

Protecting water quality 91.4 

(90.7, 92.2) 

90.3 

(89.0, 91.5) 

No 

Protecting wildlife habitat 87.2 

(86.2, 88.1) 

87.7 

(86.3, 89.1) 

No 

Knowing future generations will 

have wilderness areas 

85.1 

(84.2, 86.1) 

85.6 

(84.1, 87.1) 

No 

Protecting rare & endangered 

species 

82.9 

(81.8, 83.9) 

82.7 

(81.1, 84.3) 

No 

Preserving unique wild plants & 

animals 

79.7 

(78.6, 80.8) 

83.0 

(81.4, 84.6) 

Yes 

Providing scenic beauty 74.3 

(73.1, 75.5) 

76.5 

(74.7, 78.2) 

No 

Knowing that wilderness areas exist 74.1 

(72.9, 75.3) 

75.7 

(73.9, 77.5) 

No 

Having option to visit wilderness 

areas in future 

73.2 

(72.0, 74.4) 

76.2 

(74.4, 78.0) 

No 
5

Wilderness Value 

1999-2000 

95% C. I.1

2006-2007

95% C. I.1

Statistically 

significant 

difference2

Providing recreation opportunities 66.7 

(65.4, 68.0) 

71.3 

(69.4, 73.2) 

Yes 

Preserving natural areas for science 57.4 

(56.0, 58.7) 

64.3 

(62.3, 66.3) 

Yes 

Providing spiritual inspiration 58.2 

(56.9, 59.6) 

57.8 

(55.8, 59.9) 

No 

Providing income for tourist 

industry 

33.3 

(32.0, 34.6) 

39.6 

(37.6, 41.7) 

Yes 

1

95 percent confidence interval on weighted proportion estimates. 2

Yes or No for statistically significant difference between weighted proportion estimates. 

Source: NSRE 2000-2004, Version 2. Dates: 11/99 to 2/00, n=5,058. NSRE 2005-2007, Version 3b. 

Dates: 12/06 to 10/07, n=2,187. All NSRE data are post-weighted such that the sample age/sex/race 

proportions closely approximate the Census Bureau population proportions. Also included in the 

weighting process are adjustments based on educational attainment and metro versus non-metro 

residence. 

 

Overall, in 2006-2007 most Americans over 16 years old also ascribed high importance 

to six additional Wilderness benefits. As shown in Table 1, these included the scenic 

beauty of wild landscapes, simply knowing that wilderness is being protected whether or 

not one ever visited an area (existence value), having the choice to visit a Wilderness 

Area at some future time (option value), having the opportunity to use Wilderness for 

recreation experiences (use value), preserving nature for scientific study, and being 

spiritually inspired by wildlands. The only value not seen as very to extremely important 

by a majority of Americans was the potential for Wilderness to draw business and thus 

create a source of income for the tourism industry. Only 40 percent saw industry income 

as highly important. 

Are Urbanites Different from Ruralites? 

 

The U.S. Bureau of Census distinguishes between metropolitan (medium to large cities 

and surrounding commuting areas) and non-metropolitan areas (smaller places where 

people do not live in or commute to the larger cities). For this report, the terms urban and 

rural will be used to indicate metro and non-metro counties, respectively. 

Since urban residents make up about 80 percent of the U.S. population, one would expect 

that the importance urbanites assign to Wilderness would closely parallel the importance 

the overall U.S. population assigns. But the question arises about the importance rural 

residents assign. A comparison was set up to see if rural residents differed from urban 

residents, and thus differed from the majority of Americans. The results are shown in 

Table 2. The answer is unequivocally "no". Rural residents put the list of 13 Wilderness 
6

values in much the same order and assigned very similar importance to them. From the 

highest percentages indicating very to extremely important (protecting air and water 

quality, both over 90%) to lower percentages (e.g., recreation opportunities and natural 

areas for science), there are no statistical differences between urban and rural residents. 

There are two values where rural and urban residents appear to differ somewhat, i.e., 

spiritual inspiration and income generation for the tourism industry. But these differences 

are not significantly different at the 95 percent confidence level (i.e., confidence intervals 

overlap). Providing income for the tourist industry just missed the significance criterion 

of non-overlapping confidence intervals. Rural residents appear to assign slightly higher 

importance to that aspect of wilderness protection. 

Table 2--Wilderness Values: Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older who said 

extremely or very important, by place of residence.

Wilderness Benefit 

Metropolitan

County 

95% C. I.1

NonMetropolitan

County 

95% C. I.1

Statistically 

significant 

difference2

Protecting air quality 92.9 

(91.7, 94.1) 

93.1 

(90.7, 95.5) 

No 

Protecting water quality 90.0 

(88.6, 91.4) 

91.7 

(89.1, 94.2) 

No 

Protecting wildlife habitat 87.8 

(86.2, 89.3) 

87.2 

(84.1, 90.3) 

No 

Knowing future generations will 

have wilderness areas 

85.4 

(83.8, 87.1) 

86.5 

(83.3, 89.7) 

No 

Preserving unique wild plants & 

animals 

83.0 

(81.3, 84.8) 

82.8 

(79.3, 86.3) 

No 

Protecting rare & endangered 

species 

82.8 

(81.1, 84.6) 

82.1 

(78.6, 85.7) 

No 

Providing scenic beauty 76.3 

(74.3, 78.3) 

77.3 

(73.3, 81.2) 

No 

Having option to visit wilderness 

areas in future 

76.0 

(74.0, 78.0) 

77.0 

(73.1, 81.0) 

No 

Knowing that wilderness areas exist 75.3 

(73.3, 77.4) 

77.2 

(73.3, 81.2) 

No 

Providing recreation opportunities 71.3 

(69.2, 73.4) 

71.4 

(67.2, 75.6) 

No 

Preserving natural areas for science 64.6 

(62.3, 66.8) 

63.1 

(58.6, 67.6) 

No 
7

Wilderness Benefit 

Metropolitan

County 

95% C. I.1

NonMetropolitan

County 

95% C. I.1

Statistically 

significant 

difference2

Providing spiritual inspiration 56.8 

(54.4, 59.1) 

62.9 

(58.4, 67.5) 

No 

Providing income for tourist 

industry 

38.5 

(36.2, 40.8) 

45.0 

(40.4, 49.7) 

No 

1

95 percent confidence interval on weighted estimated activity participation rates. 

2

Yes or No for statistically significant difference between weighted estimates of activity participation rates. 

Source: NSRE 2005-2007, Version 3b. Dates: 12/06 to 10/07, n=2,187. All NSRE data are post-weighted 

such that the sample age/sex/race proportions closely approximate the Census Bureau population 

proportions. Also included in the weighting process are adjustments based on educational attainment and 

metro versus non-metro residence. 

 

Does Region of the Country Matter? 

 

The U.S. Bureau of Census divides the Country into four primary regions-the Northeast, 

South, Midwest and West. The Northeast stretches from Maine south to New Jersey and 

Pennsylvania. The South includes states from Delaware and Maryland to Texas. The 

Midwest ranges from Ohio to Kansas and then north to North Dakota. The West is the 

largest geographic area including vast areas from the eastern borders of Montana, 

Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico west to the Pacific, including Alaska and Hawaii. 

These "macro" regions are very different in relief, vegetation, land ownership (much of 

the West being public land), and people. 

Do the people living in these different regions have different opinions about Wilderness 

values? Generally, the answer is not much (Table 3). People living in different regions 

value Wilderness similarly. There are however, a few differences that are statistically 

significant and worthy of mention. 

Table 3--Wilderness Values: Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older who said 

extremely or very important, by Census region.

Wilderness 

Value 

Northeast 

95% C. I.1

Midwest 

95% C. I.1

South 

95% C. I.1

West 

95% C. I.1

Statistically

significant 

difference2

Protecting air 

quality 

94.5 

(92.1, 97.0) 

92.9 

(90.8, 95.0) 

93.0 

(91.2, 94.9) 

92.1 

(89.8, 94.4) 

No 

Protecting water 

quality 

92.5 

(89.7, 95.3) 

89.9 

(87.5, 92.4) 

92.6 

(90.7, 94.5) 

86.3 

(83.4, 89.2) 

Yes 

Protecting 

wildlife habitat 

84.2 

(80.3, 88.1) 

90.2 

(87.7, 92.6) 

87.4 

(84.9, 89.8) 

87.7 

(84.9, 90.4) 

No 
8

Wilderness 

Value 

Northeast 

95% C. I.1

Midwest 

95% C. I.1

South 

95% C. I.1

West 

95% C. I.1

Statistically

significant 

difference2

Knowing future 

generations will 

have wilderness 

areas 

86.7 

(83.0, 90.3) 

86.3 

(83.4, 89.1) 

83.8 

(81.1, 86.5) 

86.7 

(83.9, 89.6) 

No 

Preserving 

unique wild 

plants & animals 

84.1 

(80.2, 88.0) 

85.4 

(82.5, 88.3) 

81.8 

(79.0, 84.6) 

81.6 

(78.4, 84.9) 

No 

Protecting rare & 

endangered 

species 

82.5 

(78.4, 86.5) 

84.2 

(81.2, 87.2) 

81.2 

(78.3, 84.0) 

83.5 

(80.3, 86.6) 

No 

Providing scenic 

beauty 

72.0 

(67.2, 76.8) 

72.5 

(68.8, 76.1) 

80.9 

(78.1, 83.8) 

76.9 

(73.3, 80.4) 

Yes 

Having option to 

visit wilderness 

areas in future 

70.3 

(65.5, 75.2) 

75.2 

(71.7, 78.8) 

76.0 

(72.9, 79.1) 

80.6 

(77.3, 83.9) 

Yes 

Knowing that 

wilderness areas 

exist 

72.5 

(67.8, 77.3) 

74.1 

(70.5, 77.7) 

77.5 

(74.4, 80.5) 

76.5 

(72.9, 80.1) 

No 

Providing 

recreation 

opportunities 

70.4 

(65.5, 75.3) 

71.7 

(68.0, 75.4) 

71.0 

(67.7, 74.3) 

71.9 

(68.1, 75.7) 

No 

Preserving 

natural areas for 

science 

62.3 

(57.2, 67.5) 

64.7 

(60.8, 68.6) 

65.4 

(62.0, 68.9) 

63.7 

(59.6, 67.7) 

No 

Providing 

spiritual 

inspiration 

53.9 

(48.6, 59.2) 

54.5 

(50.4, 58.6) 

64.7 

(61.3, 68.2) 

54.3 

(50.1, 58.5) 

Yes 

Providing 

income for 

tourist industry 

37.6 

(32.5, 42.8) 

41.5 

(37.5, 45.6) 

41.1 

(37.5, 44.7) 

37.1 

(33.0, 41.2) 

No 

1

95 percent confidence interval on weighted proportion estimates. 2

Yes or No for statistically significant difference between weighted proportion estimates. 

Source: NSRE 2005-2007, Version 3b. Dates: 12/06 to 10/07, n=2,187. All NSRE data are post-weighted 

such that the sample age/sex/race proportions closely approximate the Census Bureau population 

proportions. Also included in the weighting process are adjustments based on educational attainment and 

metro versus non-metro residence. 
9

Somewhat fewer people in the West region, relative to the Northeast and South, place 

high importance on water quality as a benefit of Wilderness. Higher percentages of 

people in the South relative to the Northeast and Midwest see Wilderness as important for 

natural scenic beauty, and a higher percentage of people in the West relative to the 

Northeast place high importance on the option of visiting wilderness areas at some time 

in the future. A definitely higher percentage of people in the South relative to the rest of 

the U.S. see Wilderness as a source of spiritual inspiration. Feelings of spiritual 

inspiration may be associated with deeply held beliefs about passages in the Christian 

Bible that discuss wilderness experiences. 

Are Americans' Viewpoints Changing? 

The percentages and confidence intervals in the earlier referenced Table 1 show 

Wilderness values for two periods of time, seven years apart. The number 7 has come to 

symbolize many things in different cultures, modern and ancient. Recently, 7 has been 

seen as a lucky number. In the 7 years since the winter of 1999-2000, percentages of 

Americans assigning very to extreme importance to the 13 wilderness values in this 

report have generally increased, or remained at the same level. There are four values with 

increases that are statistically significant (i.e., confidence intervals do not overlap). 

These include preserving unique wild plants and animals, providing recreation 

opportunities, preserving natural areas for science and providing better income for the 

tourist industry. In this survey, unique wild plants and animals refers to species not 

usually found elsewhere. Particularly noteworthy of the statistically significant trends are 

increases in percentages assigning high importance for science and tourism. Percentages 

for both of these values rose nearly 7 percent. 

Do Citizens Want More Wilderness? 

NSRE respondents were asked their opinions about whether they saw the amount of 

federal land now designated as Wilderness as too little, about right, or too much. Over 

half in 2006-2007 (almost 51%) indicated there is not enough Wilderness, and 35 percent 

indicated the amount is about right (Table 4). Only 4 percent expressed the opinion that 

there is already too much. The percentage indicating the amount of designated 

Wilderness is "about right" increased slightly between 1999 and 2007. This upward shift 

resulted in smaller percentages in 2007 indicating "too much or don't know". The 

percentage of people who said "not enough" changed very little ending at almost 51 

percent in 2007. 

Asked how they felt about designating more of the federal lands as Wilderness in their 

home state, more than two-thirds of respondents (67%) indicated they somewhat or 

strongly favor more (Table 5). About 13 percent opposed more Wilderness in their state. 

There were no statistical differences between response percentages in 1999-2000 and 

2006-2007 to the question about adding more designated Wilderness in the respondents' 

home state. 
10

Table 4--Attitudes about the amount of land Congress has designated as wilderness. 

Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older with 95% confidence interval, by year of 

NSRE interview.

Response 

1999-2000 

95% C. I.1

2006-2007 

95% C. I.1

Statistically 

significant 

difference2

Not enough 49.5 

(48.4, 50.6) 

50.7 

(47.7, 53.7) 

No 

About right amount 29.7 

(28.4, 31.0) 

35.0 

(31.5, 38.4) 

Yes 

Too much 6.0 

(4.4, 7.5) 

4.1 

(0.0, 8.3) 

No 

Don't know 14.8 

(13.4, 16.3) 

10.2 

(6.2, 14.3) 

No 

1

95 percent confidence interval on weighted proportion estimates. 2

Yes or No for statistically significant difference between weighted proportion estimates. 

Source: NSRE 2000-2004, Versions 2, 4, 6. Dates: 11/99 to 1/01, n=14,781. NSRE 2005-2007, Version 3b. 

Dates: 12/06 to 10/07, n=2,187. All NSRE data are post-weighted such that the sample age/sex/race 

proportions closely approximate the Census Bureau population proportions. Also included in the weighting 

process are adjustments based on educational attainment and metro versus non-metro residence. 

Table 5-- Attitudes about designating more of the federal lands as wilderness in the 

respondent's home state. Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older with 95% confidence 

interval, by year of NSRE interview.

Response 

1999-2000 

95% C. I.1

2006-2007 

95% C. I.1

Statistically 

significant 

difference2

Strongly favor 42.7 

(41.2, 44.2) 

39.8 

(36.5, 43.1) 

No 

Somewhat favor 27.4 

(25.8, 29.1) 

27.4 

(23.8, 31.0) 

No 

Neither 12.2 

(10.4, 14.0) 

17.1 

(13.2, 21.0) 

No 

Somewhat oppose 6.4 

(4.6, 8.3) 

8.2 

(4.1, 12.3) 

No 

Strongly oppose 6.0 

(4.1, 7.9) 

4.6 

(0.4, 8.8) 

No 

Don't know 5.2 

(3.3, 7.1) 

3.0 

(0.0, 7.2) 

No 

1

95 percent confidence interval on weighted proportion estimates. 2

Yes or No for statistically significant difference between weighted proportion estimates. 

Source: NSRE 2000-2004, Versions 4 & 6. Dates: 2/00 to 1/01, n=9,812. NSRE 2005-2007, Version 3b. 

Dates: 12/06 to 10/07, n=2,187. All NSRE data are post-weighted such that the sample age/sex/race 

proportions closely approximate the Census Bureau population proportions. Also included in the weighting 

process are adjustments based on educational attainment and metro versus non-metro residence. 
11

Summary 

Two values stand out as highly important reasons to Americans for having federal 

Wilderness. Over 90 percent of Americans said protection of air and water quality are 

very to extremely important values of Wilderness. Four additional values also stood out, 

although they seem to be a little less important. Included are protection of wildlife 

habitat, knowledge that future generations will have Wilderness to visit (bequest value), 

protection of rare and endangered plant and animal species, and preservation of unique 

wild plants and animals. 

 

Overall, there were no differences by place of residence. Rural residents listed the 13 

Wilderness values in much the same order and level of importance as urban residents. 

Rural residents may have placed a slightly higher value on the tourism benefits of 

Wilderness, though the difference was not statistically significant. There were only a few 

differences between people living in the four macro regions of the U.S. Somewhat fewer 

in the West region placed high importance on water quality and more people in the South 

put high importance on scenic beauty and spiritual inspiration. The West ascribed the 

greatest benefit to the option value of Wilderness. 

 

In the 7 years between 1999-2000 and 2006-2007, percentages of Americans assigning 

very to extreme importance to the 13 wilderness values in this report have generally 

increased, or remained relatively the same. Those values with increases that are 

statistically significant include preserving unique wild plants and animals, providing 

recreation opportunities, preserving natural areas for science, and providing better income 

for the tourist industry. The latter two rose nearly 7 percent. Over half of Americans 

continued to say there is not enough Wilderness, and 35 percent indicated the amount is 

about right in 2006-2007, up about 5 percentage points from 1999-2000. Over two-thirds 

favored designating more federal lands as Wilderness in their home state in 2006-2007, 

roughly the same percentage as 7 years earlier.<p> 

Next Reports 

A report comparing Wilderness values between age, gender, education, income and other 

demographic groupings within U.S. Society and another report comparing values across 

people who pursue different recreational activities and examining the level of people's 

agreement with different expressions of the benefits of Wilderness are planned. 

References 

Cordell, H.K., M.A. Tarrant, and G.T. Green. 2003 Is the public viewpoint of wilderness 

shifting? International Journal of Wilderness, 9(2): 27-32. 

Cordell, H. Ken, John C. Bergstrom, and J. M. Bowker. 2005. The Multiple Values of 

American Wilderness. Venture Publishing Inc., State College, PA. 297 p. 
12

Haas, G.E., E. Hermann, and R. Walsh. 1986. Wilderness values. Natural Areas Journal, 

6(2): 37-43. 

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