The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute aims to provide scientific leadership by bringing diverse groups of scientists and managers together to develop and use the knowledge needed to assure wilderness ecosystems and values endure for generations to come. Click here for a list of our research partners.
Building on a vision of being the premier institution for wilderness stewardship research, the Leopold Institute's Program Charter identifies important roles in the conduct, support, and facilitation of scientifically rigorous research and focuses on identifying a program of work that is built around five priority areas. These emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to challenging issues that face wilderness managers. The five problem areas identified in the charter are:
- Recreation experiences and the impacts of recreation
this includes:
- understanding the basic dimensions of human experiences in wilderness and influences on those experiences,
- biophysical impacts of recreation activities,
- guidelines for restoration of impacted sites, and
- understanding of visitor distribution and flow patterns needed to guide planning and management decisions.
- Relationships between people and lands protected for their wilderness values
this includes:
- how these relationships affect and are affected by management policies and actions,
- improved understanding of contrasting values of different stakeholders,
- conflicts between differing demands and interests, and
- the attitudes people hold toward public lands.
- Stewardship of Wildland Fire as a natural process
this includes:
- an improved understanding of natural fire regimes,
- options and consequences of strategies for restoring fire as a natural process, and
- how social and institutional factors influence the evaluation of trade-offs by managers and the public.
- Wilderness in the context of Larger Ecological and Social Systems
this includes such topics as:
- the introduction, spread, and effects of nonnative species,
- global change and its effects on wildlife and other wilderness values,
- protection of water quality and quantity, and
- development of indicators and monitoring protocols to assess trends in ecological and social conditions.
- The Delivery and Application of scientific knowledge and tools
this includes:
- facilitating access to and improving awareness of scientific knowledge and tools, and
- investigating influences on and developing improved approaches for effective science delivery and application.
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