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WILDERNESS MANAGEMENT TRAINING
FOR LATIN AMERICAN MANAGERS
BY GEORGE WALLACE AND JIM WURZ
Participants learn backpacking, llama packing, and horse packing skills,
as well as the relative impacts and advantages of each travel mode.
EACH YEAR, the Management of Wildlands and Protected
Areas short course at Colorado State University trains
21 Latin America managers. An important part of this
training is conducted in U.S. wilderness areas.
The field-based short course, now in its ninth year, is
designed to pack a lot of experiences into a month of intense
activity. The course, conducted in Spanish, is taught by Drs.
George Wallace and Craig MacFarland, along with guest instructors
from the USDI Bureau of Land Management, the USD
A Forest Service, and the USDI National Park Service. Over
the course of a month, managers are exposed to a range of
protected areas, the purposes for which they are managed, and
their problems and successes, with an emphasis on integrated
resource management and interagency cooperation. For most,
it is their first exposure to the U.S. concept of wilderness.
Management topics that run throughout the course include
biodiversity conservation and planning at the national, ecosystem,
and unit levels; wildland values; building international,
national, and local constituencies; managing personnel, visitors,
concessions, and nonconforming uses; integrating wildland
protection with social and rural development; controlling
impacts to soil, vegetation, water, and wildlife; infrastructure
layout, construction, and maintenance; conflict resolution; and
financing strategies.
The final field experience is a five-day wilderness trip integrating
most of the concepts discussed during the preceding
weeks. This is a working pack trip with daily classes in which
EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION
students encounter a range of issues related to wilderness management
such as zoning, visitor management, patrolling, emergency
procedures, selection and maintenance of trails and user
sites, resource inventory and monitoring, and personal wilderness
skills and leadership.
To set the example of minimizing impacts, the class is divided
into four groups that travel by different routes and camp
in sites one to two miles apart. One group leads horses, another
llamas, and the last two carry backpacks. Midway through
the trip participants change camps so that those who entered
with pack stock leave carrying backpacks and vice versa. Participants
are contacted by local wilderness rangers/specialists
who inspect the camps and talk about their training, equipment,
responsibilities, and challenges. Participants are enthusiastic
about the coordinated program of ranger patrols,
monitoring, and record keeping, as well as the dedication of
the forest rangers they meet.
Rapid growth in Latin America’s national protected area
systems means that the best and brightest natural resource professionals
often have
ascended quickly to
positions of authority
with limited field experience.
Many of those
skills, such as land
navigation, search and
rescue techniques, visitor
contacts, site and
resource monitoring,
handling of pack stock,
and field equipment
use, are eagerly sought.
The minimum impact
practices utilized
throughout the trip are
also new for most Latin
Americans. Many Latin
American protected areas
exclude visitors
from backcountry both
due to fear of natural
resource impacts and
inability to manage
people in those areas.
Course field trips include lectures as well as physical
activities.
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDERNESS Volume 3, Number 4 17