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# HOW DO AMERICANS VIEW WILDERNESS

A WILDERNESS Research Report in the IRIS Series 1



## 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 accessi ble 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 Servi ce’s Southern Research St ation and its Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Athens, Georgia; the Univer sity 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 Scientis t, Carter J. Betz, Outdoor Recreation Planner, and Shela Mou, Computer Assistant, USDA Forest Service; J. Mark Fly, Profe ssor, 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 impo rtant, 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 designatin g 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 .......................................................................................101 Introduction-What is Wilderness?

In 1964, the U.S. Congress voted to establ ish the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). The vote was virtually unan imous. This legislation was enacted to permanently protect some of the most undist urbed 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 ac res. 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 one s in 1964 came in the years soon after the original designations. But as the U.S. populat ion, elected government representatives and federal land management agency personnel ha ve changed, not only have additions been made more slowly, but also questions in creasingly arise about designating more Wilderness. Increasingly, commercial and de velopment interests are seeking access to federal lands. This could make new designa tions more contentious. As we continue our journey through the 21st Century, the unfoldi ng drama of trends, such as population growth, urbanization, and global climate cha nge, 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 w ith 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 base d on original survey research that focused on what American's s ee as valuable about protected Wilderness. The intended primary audiences are the polic y makers, land management agencies, nongovernmental organizations, political official s 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 a nd 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). Th e 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 nationw ide research project in collaboration with other federal agencies and universities. The NSRE has provided federal and state agencies, educational institutions, and the pr ivate sector, with outdoor recreation trend and demand data on local, regi onal and national scales sin ce the first NRS in 1960.<p>

The NSRE is a general population, random- digit-dialed househol d telephone survey designed primarily to measure outdoor re creation and environmental attitudes of2 Americans. This is accomp lished by surveying a random, cr oss-sectional sample of noninstitutionalized residents of the United St ates, 16 years of age and older. The Human Dimensions Research Laborat ory at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, an on-going NSRE cooperator, conducts the survey almo st daily. The system is computer-assisted (CATI) so the trained interviewers work fr om a computer monitor and the data are automatically entered as te lephone interviews are conducte d. 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 a nd organizations. The agencies/organizations typically include the Forest Service (Depar tment of Agriculture); the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service (Dep artment of the Interior); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Dep artment of Commerce); the United States Coast Guard; and the Environmental Protecti on Agency. State, local, and special purpose governments related to recreati on 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 dem ographic profiles of survey respondents match those of the U. S. population 16 years old or ol der. They have been statistically analyzed using widely accepted statistical approaches . Confidence intervals at the 95-percent confidence level were computed for each percen tage shown in the tables that follow. Any two percentages in any of the tables can be compared. If th e confidence intervals (plus or minus ranges) of percentages being compared do not overla p, 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 in cluded in recent rounds of the NSRE asked respondents (16 years of age or older) a bout their attitudes toward the National Wilderness Preservation System. Basically th e 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 aspe cts or benefits of Wilderness people perceive as important. A values scale was adopted fr om 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 previo usly (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 wilder ness areas that make up the National Wilderness Preservation System cont ain over 4 percent of the United States total land area, in cluding Alaska. Each of th ese 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 wh ether it is extremely important, very important, moderately important, sligh tly important, or not important at all to you as a reason to pres erve 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 hav e 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 Wilder ness and primitive areas exist

Finally respondents were asked how they fe lt about the amount of federal land in the Wilderness System.

Do you think that the amount of la nd the Congress has designated as wilderness is not enough, about th e 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 st rongly 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 wate r 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 pe rcent indicated very to extremely important. These include protec ting wildlife habitat, knowing that future generations will have Wilderness to visit (be quest value), protecting rare and endangered plant and animal species, and preserving unique wild plants and animal s. In this survey, rare and endangered refers to legally desi gnated species under th e Endangered Species Act.

Table 1--Wilderness Values: Percent of U. S. residents age 16 and older who said extremely or very important with 95% c onfidence interval, by year of NSRE interview.

Wilderness Value 1999-2000 95% C. I. 1 2006-2007 95% C. I. 1 Statistically significant difference 2

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) No5 Wilderness Value 1999-2000 95% C. I. 1 2006-2007 95% C. I. 1 Statistically significant difference 2

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 ar e 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 ascrib ed high importance to six additional Wilderness benefits. As s hown 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 va lue), 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), preser ving nature for scientific study, and being spiritually inspired by wildlands. The only valu e 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 percen t saw industry income as highly important.

Are Urbanites Different from Ruralites?

The U.S. Bureau of Census distinguishes be tween metropolitan (med ium 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 Wild erness would closely pa rallel the importance the overall U.S. population assigns. But the que stion arises about the importance rural residents assign. A comparison was set up to s ee if rural residents differed from urban residents, and thus differed from the major ity of Americans. The results are shown in Table 2. The answer is unequivocally "no". Rural residents put the list of 13 Wilderness6 values in much the same order and assigned very similar importance to them. From the highest percentages indicating very to extr emely important (protecting air and water quality, both over 90%) to lower percentage s (e.g., recreation oppor tunities and natural areas for science), there are no statistical di fferences 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 fo r the tourism industry. But these differences are not significantly different at the 95 percen t confidence level (i.e., confidence intervals overlap). Providing inco me for the tourist industry just missed the signif icance criterion of non-overlapping confidence interv als. 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 difference 2

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) No7 Wilderness Benefit Metropolitan County 95% C. I. 1 NonMetropolitan County 95% C. I. 1 Statistically significant difference 2

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 significan t 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 cl osely 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 stretc hes from Maine south to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The South includes states fr om Delaware and Maryland to Texas. The Midwest ranges from Ohio to Kansas and th en north to North Dakota. The West is the largest geographic area includi ng vast areas from the easte rn 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, la nd ownership (much of the West being public land), and people.

Do the people living in these different regi ons have different opinions about Wilderness values? Generally, the answer is not much (T able 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 difference 2

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) No8 Wilderness Value Northeast 95% C. I. 1 Midwest 95% C. I. 1 South 95% C. I. 1 West 95% C. I. 1 Statistically significant difference 2

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 cl osely 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, re lative to the North east and South, place high importance on water quality as a benef it of Wilderness. Higher percentages of people in the South relative to the Northeas t 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 rela tive to the rest of the U.S. see Wilderness as a source of sp iritual 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 refere nced Table 1 show Wilderness values for two periods of time, se ven 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 importa nce 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 pl ants and animals, providing recreation opportunities, preserving natu ral areas for science and pr oviding better income for the tourist industry. In this surv ey, unique wild plants and an imals refers to species not usually found elsewhere. Partic ularly noteworthy of the statis tically significant trends are increases in percentages assigning high importa nce 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 sli ghtly 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 re spondents (67%) indicated they somewhat or strongly favor more (Table 5). About 13 perc ent opposed more Wilderness in their state. There were no statistical di fferences between response percentages in 1999-2000 and 2006-2007 to the question about adding more de signated Wilderness in the respondents' home state.10 Table 4--Attitudes about the amount of la nd Congress has designated as wilderness. Percent of U.S. residents age 16 and older wi th 95% confidence interval, by year of NSRE interview.

Response 1999-2000 95% C. I. 1 2006-2007 95% C. I. 1 Statistically significant difference 2 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 ar e 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 atta inment 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. re sidents 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 difference 2 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 ar e 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 atta inment and metro versus non-metro residence.11 Summary

Two values stand out as hi ghly important reasons to Americans for having federal Wilderness. Over 90 percent of Americans sa id protection of air and water quality are very to extremely important values of Wilder ness. Four additional values also stood out, although they seem to be a little less im portant. Included are pr otection of wildlife habitat, knowledge that future generations wi ll 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 a nd level of importance as urban residents. Rural residents may have placed a slightly higher value on the t ourism benefits of Wilderness, though the difference was not statis tically 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 be auty and spiritual inspiration. The West ascribed the greatest benefit to the op tion value of Wilderness.

In the 7 years between 1999-2000 and 2006-2007, percentages of Am ericans assigning very to extreme importance to the 13 wilderne ss values in this report have generally increased, or remained relatively the same . Those values with increases that are statistically significant incl ude preserving unique wild pl ants and animals, providing recreation opportuni ties, 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 Wilderne ss, 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 a nd another report comparing values across people who pursue different recreational activ ities 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. Gree n. 2003 Is the public viewpoint of wilderness shifting? International Journa l of Wilderness, 9(2): 27-32.

Cordell, H. Ken, John C. Bergstrom, and J. M. Bowker. 2005. The Multiple Values of American Wilderness. Venture Publis hing Inc., State College, PA. 297 p.12 Haas, G.E., E. Hermann, and R. Walsh. 1986. W ilderness values. Natural Areas Journal, 6(2): 37-43.



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