Wilderness Character Monitoring in the Rocky Mountain West (In-Person & Live-Streamed LAM Talk)
Tue, Jun 25, 20247:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Los Alamos Nature Center or Virtual
2600 Canyon Rd. , Los Alamos , NM 87544
Admission: Free (please select an in-person or virtual ticket).
Join PEEC and the Los Alamos Mountaineers for the June Mountaineers meeting and presentation. There will be a mountaineers meeting at the beginning of the event (about 15 minutes), then we'll hear from Daryl Kohut, Katie Goodleaf, and Mike Fugate about wilderness character monitoring program on National Forest Service lands. You can view the presentation in-person at Los Alamos Nature Center or from home via Zoom (slides and audio only). Please register in advance.
In partnership with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, the Rio Grande National Forest hosts various initiatives for public engagement in vital volunteer work. Among these, the wilderness character monitoring program stands out as a long-term project greatly aided by volunteers. It involves collecting water samples in Wilderness areas on National Forest Service lands, contributing significantly to the preservation of wilderness character. Since the Wilderness Act of 1964, Congress has designated 37 million acres of National Forest Service land as wilderness, constituting about 19 percent of all managed land. The Act's primary aim is to safeguard wilderness character. In support of this, a long-standing lake monitoring program, initiated in the 1990s, tracks the effects of atmospheric deposition on high-mountain lake ecosystems and assesses water chemistry as a key ecological indicator.
This presentation offers insights into the evolution and current status of the wilderness character monitoring program at Rio Grande National Forest. The presenters will provide information on how to participate in this program and other volunteer opportunities within the forest. Additionally, Mike Fugate from Los Alamos Mountaineers will share his firsthand experiences of conducting multiday backcountry trips to gather water samples in the South San Juan and La Garita Wilderness areas.
Admission: Free (please select an in-person or virtual ticket).
