Poll on opinions towards the use and management of designated Wilderness Areas

[DSettahr]

I put together a short poll on opinions that people have towards both the use of Wilderness, and the management of Wilderness. I'm not doing anything official with this; it is just for fun. I've posted it on a few other message boards and figured I would also post it here.

It's not a very scientific poll, and I admit that the questions don't leave much room for specifics. Try to answer in general terms, without thinking of any specific Wilderness Areas, but rather your attitudes towards Wilderness in general. The first section is on use of Wilderness by the public. The second section is on various methods of controlling use and access of Wilderness by management agencies. The third section is demographics.

It takes about 5-10 minutes to complete the poll, and I would appreciate getting the viewpoints of the AT community, so the more people willing to take it, the better. I will at some point post a summary of the results.

You can access the poll here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aix-yPkc9_zTF7BRq8CQvF7oidnxV2mDZlBcUX6KgVI/viewform

Thanks!

[Dogwood]

Your survey's definition of wilderness, "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" is the definition used by the NPS for the setting aside and managing of National Parks.

[DSettahr]

Your survey's definition of wilderness, "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" is the definition used by the NPS for the setting aside and managing of National Parks.

Actually, it is the definition of Wilderness that was given by the Wilderness Act of 1964. Some federal Wilderness Areas are managed by the NPS, but not all. Conversely, many National Parks do have designated Wilderness, but again, not all of them do.

[DSettahr]

Here is a link to the text of that law: http://www.wilderness.net/NWPS/legisact

[moldy]

So you did this just for fun? Nothing to do, cold night, you sit down and craft a 60 question poll and post it on several web pages. Why not admit it, it's your homework project for school.

[DSettahr]

So you did this just for fun? Nothing to do, cold night, you sit down and craft a 60 question poll and post it on several web pages. Why not admit it, it's your homework project for school.

To each his own. :)

[Hill Ape]

would like to see results, and analysis of the "unscientific data"

[Hill Ape]

does it really matter if he did for fun or assignment, your choice to participate, maybe some good could come from this data

[rickb]

does it really matter if he did for fun or assignment, your choice to participate, maybe some good could come from this data

I am all about fun polls, but this one begs the question, "Why?". Just a wee bit of background might add to the fun, and would certainly be likely to motivate some more people to participate.

[DSettahr]

I am all about fun polls, but this one begs the question, "Why?". Just a wee bit of background might add to the fun, and would certainly be likely to motivate some more people to participate.

For fun. My life's passion is outdoor recreation and recreation management. Not just professionally, but personally as well. :)

[AkaMirage]

Why not admit it, it's your homework project for school.

I rather hope it IS a project for school. As a graduate student myself, I'd like to think I helped a peer out with a research project! ;)

Even if it was just for fun, I would be interested in the answers you get, DSettahr. Although I think the results may be a little skewed from the norm because of your audience here on WB, unless you distributed it to some audiences that represent the general populace.

[DSettahr]

I rather hope it IS a project for school. As a graduate student myself, I'd like to think I helped a peer out with a research project! ;)

Even if it was just for fun, I would be interested in the answers you get, DSettahr. Although I think the results may be a little skewed from the norm because of your audience here on WB, unless you distributed it to some audiences that represent the general populace.

The results will be very skewed, in more ways that one. So far, a majority of the respondents are from NY, as I posted it to several NY-specific hiking message boards. Whiteblaze posts will likely skew it towards the east coast as well. I should probably find some message boards for out west to post it on, too.

I had also posted it to a survey taking community to try and capture some viewpoints of the non-hiking and non-backpacking crowd, but I'm not sure how many of them actually took it.