Definitions of Wilderness

No lesson on Thursday! Your tutors need you for planner period! Wt's lesson as normal on Friday. I will see you on Tuesday & Thursday next week! Here are some things to be thinking about! Don't forget to check the 'wild coast' website & blog as well & have a view of the Antarctica movie.

To go here but slideshare.net isn't playing at the moment!

This is the powerpoint I went through quickly on Monday. Have another look at it! This is from the 1964 US Wilderness Act: 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. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this chapter an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

This is worth reading & simplifies things. What do you understand by the phrase'Wilderness is a human construction'?

In Australia a wilderness inventory or survey has been conducted. Details are outlined below and further information can be found here.
The Wilderness Indicators Wilderness survey work is implemented by measuring variation in wilderness quality across the landscape using four wilderness quality 'indicators' that represent the two essential attributes of wilderness; remoteness and naturalness.
These are derived from the definition of wilderness quality as the extent to which a location is remote from and undisturbed by the influence of modern technological society.

These indicators are:
Remoteness from Settlementremoteness from places of permanent occupation;
Remoteness from Accessremoteness from established access routes;
Apparent Naturalnessthe degree to which the landscape is free from the presence of permanent structures associated with modern technological society;
Biophysical Naturalnessthe degree to which the natural environment is free from biophysical disturbance caused by the influence of modern technological society.