The world’s largest wilderness protection network after 50 years: An assessment of ecological system representation in the U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System

Abstract

a b s t r a c tProtected areas, such as wilderness, form the foundation of most strategies to conserve biological diversity. However, the success of protected areas in achieving conservation goals depends partly on how well ecological diversity is represented in a network of designated lands. We examined how well the world's largest highly-protected conservation network-the U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS)-currently represents ecological systems found on federal lands in the contiguous United States and how ecological system representation has accumulated over the 50-year tenure of the Wilderness Act (passed in 1964 and giving the U.S. Congress authority to establish wilderness areas). Although the total area of NWPS has risen fairly steadily since 1964, the diversity of ecological systems accumulated in wilderness areas (436 ecological systems) reached an asymptote 30 years ago that is well below the total pool of ecological systems available (553) on federal lands. Thus, NWPS currently underrepresents ecological system diversity. Additionally, only 113 ecological systems are represented at more than 20% of federal land area. As the designation of new wilderness areas becomes more difficult, it is important to increase the ecological representation of those areas to achieve greater protection of biological diversity. Over the next 50 years of the Wilderness Act, federal land-management agencies and the U.S. Congress could increase the ecological diversity of wilderness areas by prioritizing under-represented ecological systems in new wilderness legislation.

Ecological and sociopolitical assessment of congressional and presidential designation of federal protected areas

“…, Dietz et al. , Jenkins et al. ), although the highest priorities are largely in the eastern United States where relatively little federal land is available for protection.…”

“…Recent history suggests that presidential designation may be the most efficient means of expanding the PA network: since 1996, approximately 40% more federal land in the contiguous United States has been protected by presidential action than by congressional action. Further expansion could help to address the under-representation of species and ecological systems in the existing PA network of the United States (Aycrigg et al 2013, Dietz et al 2015, Jenkins et al 2015, although the highest priorities are largely in the eastern United States where relatively little federal land is available for protection. The ability to designate PAs rapidly and unilaterally makes presidential Antiquities Act authority particularly valuable for responding to sudden threats to ecologically valuable areas that may be degraded before enough support for protection has been amassed to allow congressional designation (Squillace 2002).…”

Nature protection across countries: Do size and power matter?

“…By comparing previous values presented in this text, protected areas under V, VI or miscellaneous IUCN categories encompass approximately 126,000 units and 5.7% of the global protected area. Nevertheless, we left aside these categories (and other such as wilderness areas, Dietz et al 2015) as their governance and tenure potentially lack formal protection and management, they have uncertain conservation objectives and long-term capabilities, and their enforcement of law is compromised (Shafer 2015, 2019).…”

Quantifying the National Significance of Local Areas for Regional Conservation Planning: North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures

“…These roadless areas may be considered as reasonable candidates for future wilderness designation [25], and protecting roadless areas composed of ecosystems poorly represented in wilderness and other highly protected areas should be considered high priorities for additional protections [24]. Designating lands composed of poorly represented ecosystems will ensure that our protected areas system of the future includes all of nature's diversity, and can be used as part of important climate adaptation planning [35].…”

“…Ecosystem representation has recently been calculated using a number of different methods, including those based on the proportion of ecosystem area within different GAP status lands [8], wilderness areas [24], and roadless lands [25]. We recalculated the analyses of Aycrigg et al (2013) using the latest protected areas database (PAD) to map the proportion of total area of each ecosystem occurring in GAP status 1 or 2 areas ( Figure 2C) [23].…”