Christopher A. Monz, Charles P. Henderson, Richard A. Brame
National Outdoor Leadership School, Lander, WY

Abstract
Continued social and ecological research is vital to the sustainability of wilderness systems. Since land use is shifting from resource-based to recreational-based activities in many areas, recreational user education has become an increasing priority. This paper provides preliminary results from on-going wilderness research and examples of the use of this information for wilderness stewardship purposes. Direct integration of research into wilderness education programs such as Leave No Trace (LNT) can provide an essential mechanism for applying research findings at the user level. The LNT public-private national educational initiative establishes a framework to provide the user with the most complete minimum-impact skills and information. LNT also directly involves land management professionals as "master trainers" and thus provides and important feedback into identifying research priorities. We describe an approach that integrates current research into a user-based education program. An example of current research findings of vegetation impact is used to describe the use of scientific research to modify minimum-impact practices.

Citation
Monz, C.A., C. Henderson, R.A. Brame. 1994. Perspectives on the integration of Wilderness research, education and management. In: 6th National Wilderness Conference proceedings, Santa Fe, NM.

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Perspectives on the integration of wilderness research and education