BLM and NOLS Team-up for Monitoring Project

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT NEWS RELEASE
Lander Field Office

Release Date: 05/12/10

Contacts:		Sarah Beckwith
		307-347-5207

BLM and NOLS Team-up for Monitoring Project

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Lander Field Office (LFO) and students and instructors from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) recently spent a day monitoring Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in the Granite Mountains, east of Jeffrey City, Wyo.

NOLS Field Instructor Christian Gauderer assists students Varley Hopkinson, Maegan Fitzgerald & Zach Parelman as they monitor wilderness characteristics in the Split Rock WSA.
Students from the NOLS Outdoor Educator Semester hike in the Split Rock WSA.
The morning began with a safety and orientation talk, after which BLM Recreation Technician Brandon Thielke discussed various wilderness characteristics and values the group would be documenting, including evidence of development, naturalness, viewsheds, and opportunities for solitude. Armed with worksheets, maps and GPS units, the students and instructors hiked into the Split Rock and Miller Springs WSAs. By day's end, the group had monitored approximately 15 miles within and near the boundaries of the WSAs and logged a combined total of 84 hours of service.

"Monitoring like this helps us ensure that WSAs are not being degraded, and that they continue to offer people opportunities to have wilderness experiences," said Thielke. "The NOLS course was a huge asset to the ongoing monitoring effort." In preparation for the project, Thielke visited the students in a classroom setting in mid-April and spoke with them about multiple use land management, wilderness and WSAs.

WSAs, which were identified by the BLM in 1991, are managed to preserve their wilderness values until Congress either designates them as wilderness or releases them for non-wilderness management. The LFO manages eight WSAs.

The students are participants in a 94-day Outdoor Educator Semester offered by NOLS. The semester is geared towards aspiring and practicing professional educators and students studying outdoor education. Students were in the midst of the rock climbing section of the semester, learning and teaching various climbing techniques, when a windy day provided the ideal opportunity to stay on the ground and monitors the WSAs.

"Many of our students are not from the West," said NOLS Field Instructor Christian Gauderer, "and Federal land management is not a big issue in their lives. These courses give them an idea about what land management is all about."

After hiking for a few hours in the Split Rock WSA, Maegan Fitzgerald of Texas concluded that the day gave her "a real perspective of the full range of what's going on on our public lands - from the ground up."

For more information, please contact Brandon Thielke at 307-332-8400 or visit http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/field_offices/Lander/wsa.html. To learn more about NOLS, visit http://www.nols.edu/.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. In Fiscal Year 2012, activities on public lands generated $4.6 billion in revenue, much of which was shared with the States where the activities occurred. In addition, public lands contributed more than $112 billion to the U.S. economy and helped support more than 500,000 jobs.

--BLM--

Lander Field Office 1335 Main Lander, WY 82520-0589

Last updated: 05-12-2010