Data from a 1990 visitor survey in the Desolation Wilderness to determine visitor trends, and preferences for wilderness conditions and experience

This package contains trend, characteristic, activity and preference data collected as part of a 1990 survey of visitors to the Desolation Wilderness in the Sierra Nevada of northern California. Permit and mailback surveys were used to provide the data from a systematic sample of visitors with the required use permit (permit holders) and a sample of party members (group members without the permit). A convenient sample of visitors who did not comply with the permit requirement (entered without permit) were asked to complete a short onsite survey which allowed for comparison to those who did obtain the permit.The Wilderness Act (PL 88-577) directs that wilderness be managed to preserve natural conditions and to provide outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation. To meet those management goals, managers must adapt their programs to changes in the amount and type of use and resultant conditions. It is also important for managers to be aware of likely visitor response to proposed management actions and their preferences for conditions in wilderness. Unfortunately, very little is known about trends in the characteristics, activities and preferences of wilderness visitors. Some baseline data on wilderness visitors exist for other areas, but many geographic areas are not represented and surveys have been conducted at quite different times. The data reported here comes from a coordinated research effort to understand wilderness use and user trends better. The study and datasets presented here allow for comparison between responses from visitors in 1990-1991 to visitors in 1972. Surveying for visitor preferences and use of the Desolation Wilderness gives researchers and managers the ability to ascertain changes in wilderness conditions, and better understand trends in visitor expectation and experience.Original metadata date was 10/31/2017. On 07/11/2018 we added a reference to 1972 data now available from the Desolation Wilderness.