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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
The course covers management issues in wild and scenic river corridors. 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. 18 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDERNESS Volume 3, Number 4 The wilderness trip intends to show managers they can slowly begin to allow people to experience the unique values of wilderness and build a constituency of those who have intimately experienced the area without sacrificing resource protection. The trip also illustrates the relative advantages and disadvantages of backpacking, llama packing, and horse packing; the type of work that can be done; associated impacts; and the necessary management techniques for each. For some participants, the wilderness component of the course provides them with one of the most challenging experiences of their lives. Many leave with a sense of accomplishment, confidence, and inspiration that stays with them in their work. Course instructors know this because the past participants with whom they meet, work, or correspond in later years invariably reminisce about the wilderness trips. IJW GEORGE WALLACE is a professor in the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. Telephone: (970) 491-5165. E-mail: georgew@picea.cnr.co-lostate.edu. JIM WURZ is a consultant in protected areas training and management. He has been an instructor for Colorado State University’s summer course for international protected area managers for the past six years.
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