This book is the first text and reference that specifically addresses the issues and problems of wilderness management. The material is organized into six sections, each intended to present a comprehensive summary and synthesis of pertinent information The book's 16 chapters bring together both previously published as well as new information and viewpoints pertaining to wilderness management-writing which includes philosophy and concepts research data, and management experience in Federal agencies. Specifically, our objectives include the following: 1. To sensitize readers to pressing wilderness management issues and the implications of alternative methods of dealing with them. 2. To distinguish issues of wilderness management from issues of wilderness allocation and management of related lands, and to describe their important interrelationships. 3. To introduce readers to pertinent literature and ongoing research on wilderness, focusing particularly on the management implications of such work 4. To describe the evolution of the National Wilderness Preservation System from its philosophical and historical origins to its current size in number of areas and acres, with a speculative look at the future. 5. To propose principles and concepts from which management policy and actions to preserve wilderness might be derived, and to describe current management policies, procedures, and techniques that are available. We recognize that among our readers there will be many diverse views about wilderness management, and we do not expect universal agreement with our treatment of a topic as emotion-laden as wilderness. Hopefully, we have avoided some of the polarity of opinion that commonly surrounds discussion of wilderness by attempting to maintain a broad, conceptual perspective on management problems. We have tried to identify alternative wilderness management perspectives and their implications. Where we do advocate a particular management direction, we try to state our position clearly and identify our line of reasoning. Both within individual agencies and among the public, there are varying orientations toward wilderness and its management, but we are gratified by what we think is some convergence of views in the past decade. We hope this book will stimulate the discussions and foster the consensus necessary to meet the challenge of wilderness management that faces government agencies and the interested public. July 1977 John C. Hendee George H. Stankey Rober