Interagency Regional Wilderness Stewardship Training
The course will be held in-person in Alamosa, CO. The registration deadline is June 20, 2025. Staff from any federal agency who work in wilderness are invited to apply (see application link below). Non-federal agencies and partners are also welcome to register and will be selected if space allows. The Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center will notify those selected. Participants are required to attend the entire training to receive credit.
Dates
September 15-18, 2025.
Location
Alamosa, Colorado
Lead Wilderness Training Specialist
James Sippel, Bureau of Land Management representative to the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center
Cost
There is no tuition charged for the training.
Participants pay their own travel costs and acquire their own travel authorization. Procedures for approval to travel vary and require significant advanced submission time. The course application includes a signature line for your supervisor. Your supervisor’s signature confirms that they agree to initiate your specific travel authorization process. This confirmation is required before you will be considered by the Carhart Center for attendance. Upon notification of selection to the course, you must begin your specific travel approval process.
Agency Mission
The objective of the course is to further the missions of the BLM, FWS, FS, and NPS by equipping staff with the skills to secure the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness in a manner that preserves, sustains, conserves, and protects the health, diversity, and productivity of natural and cultural resources, including fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats, in a sustainable and unimpaired condition for the continued use, enjoyment, education, inspiration, benefit, and diverse needs of present and future generations of Americans, through the preservation of wilderness character.
The offered training provides participants with operational knowledge in the application of the Wilderness Act relevant to the BLM, FWS, FS, and NPS. Fundamental principles essential and critical to all operations in wilderness will be provided. This includes (but is not limited to) the management of fire, resource inventory and analysis, resource administration, law enforcement, search and rescue, recreation administration, and related topics.
Lodging
Specific information about lodging will be provided when your registration is confirmed.
Audience
The target audience is field-level decision-makers and field staff who conduct work in wilderness and therefore have wilderness stewardship responsibilities.
Description
This course focuses on the National Wilderness Preservation System, administrative priorities, and agency policy. The Wilderness Act’s overarching mandate to preserve wilderness character, including its public use, is emphasized. Sound wilderness management principles, and application of those principles through the Minimum Requirements Analysis process is predominant in all instruction. The topics included in this training are selected for their regional relevance, though the topics will have relevance in other regions as well.
Participants will learn to: 1) interpret and apply the statute that established the National Wilderness Preservation System, administrative priorities, agency policy, special provisions, and related laws; 2) recognize and address regional issues affecting wilderness management; 3) apply wilderness stewardship principles consistent with the management of fire, resource administration, and recreation management; and 4) demonstrate commitment to excellence in wilderness stewardship and sound decision-making under the Wilderness Act’s mandate to preserve wilderness character. Learning is enhanced by a one-day field-going analysis where stewardship issues will be discussed, and the opportunity to network with wilderness professionals across land management agencies.
Learning Objectives
- Develop participants knowledge of the legal requirements of the Wilderness Act.
- Describe the qualities of wilderness character and how they are protected.
- Apply the Minimum Requirements Analysis process to management issues.
- Improve participants knowledge of the National Wilderness Preservation System as a whole, and how their units integrate into that system.
- Increase manager’s awareness of the tools/processes/resources that support stewardship of NWPS.
- Explore management approaches to issues held in common with other participants.
- Develop skills in wilderness topics relevant to the region, for example:
- Fire suppression and prescribed fire
- Fish & wildlife
- Cultural resources
- Indigenous connections to wilderness lands
- Grazing
- Recreational access and visitor use management
- Interagency collaboration and efficiency
- Law enforcement
- Search and rescue
- Inholding access
- Valid existing rights
- Wilderness legislation specific to the region
- Considerations for ecological intervention in wilderness
Prerequisites
Prerequisites will be specified after your selection.
Registration
Would like to enroll but can’t? Please tell us why here. This information will help us to plan for future courses.
Questions
Questions about the registration process should be directed to Holly Metzger at holly.metzger@usda.gov or 406-243-4682. Questions about course content or logistics should be directed to the course coordinator, James Sippel, jsippel@blm.gov