The American people are welcome in their wilderness but we must all recognize the benefits of wilderness and enjoy the land consistent with wilderness values. We put together a task force of wilderness managers and researchers to develop our strategy for wilderness recreation as part of our draft wilderness agenda, Thinking Like a Mountain. Our objective is to help people enrich their lives, find inspiration, and discover wonder in their wilderness areas. If we are to maintain wilderness values, we must also protect it from overuse. Maintaining the character and integrity of the wilderness resource is an essential component of our draft agenda.
Much work remains.
Too often, we focus exclusively on how to add more wilderness to the system. We forget the difficulties we face in managing the wilderness we already have. The management challenges are daunting air quality, water quality, recreation use, invasive species, fire management the list goes on and on. I know you will continue to advocate the proposal of additional wilderness, and so will we. But with notable exceptions, such as former Forest Service employee Bill Worf, too few focus on the challenges of managing the existing wilderness system.