Plan your wilderness adventure

Missoula-based website helps guide you to the wilderness in America

Montana Living — So many wild places, so little time. What to do?

Well, a new website from the University of Montana’s Wilderness Institute helps the public to plan backcountry trips online using Wilderness Connect (https://www.wilderness.net).

Wilderness Connect guides people who are planning hiking, backpacking, boating and wildlife-watching trips to federally designated wilderness areas. It also provides key resources for land managers to ensure that wilderness areas are protected for future generations to enjoy.

Wilderness Connect includes descriptions, regulatory information and interactive maps of all 803 wilderness areas in the U.S. The site also provides educational information detailing the history of the wilderness ethic, today’s stewardship challenges, and the benefits of and threats to wilderness. Users can search by state or wilderness name.

For land managers, the website provides searchable legal and scientific databases and toolboxes on contemporary wilderness stewardship issues like climate change, fire and using traditional tools like crosscut saws.
“Our digital wilderness library – the only one in the country – puts information at the fingertips of more than 475,000 visitors annually and makes the Wilderness Institute a broad-reaching leader in conservation education,” said Andrew Larson, WI director.

Housed within UM’s W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, the Wilderness Institute provides students, land managers and the public with research products, educational programs, resources and technical tools to understand wilderness and wildlands conservation and stewardship.
In addition to being available to anyone online, Wilderness Connect is used as part of the WI’s Wilderness Management Distance Education Program, which provides professional wilderness stewardship education to students around the country. Wilderness Connect is also used as part of the Wilderness and Civilization Program, an interdisciplinary, experiential undergraduate program at UM.

ABOUT THE WILDERNESS INSTITUTE

Established in 1975, the WI was organized by a group of scientists, educators, conservationists and public land managers in response to ongoing political strife over wilderness allocation and management. Current WI programs also include a freshman wilderness experience and a citizen science summer program that empowers community volunteers to monitor the status of public lands in Montana. For more information on UM’s WI, visit http://www.cfc.umt.edu