Looking for an opportunity to visit a beautiful new destination in southeast Arizona and give back to public lands in the process? Wild Arizona has partnered with the Forest Service to perform Solitude Monitoring in the Mount Wrightson, Galiuro and Santa Teresa Wilderness Areas of southeastern Arizona, and we have opportunities for volunteers to help with this process. If you are going to find yourself in any of these areas in the near future, or if you’re looking for a great new place to go visit while helping collect data to ensure that everyone has the opportunity for solitude into the future, please contact us and let us know!
Wilderness areas are required, among other things, to provide “outstanding opportunities for solitude”, as specified in the Wilderness Act of 1964. In order to ensure that character of Wilderness is still being properly managed for, the U.S. Forest Service is required to perform Solitude Monitoring in its Wilderness areas as part of its ongoing Wilderness Stewardship Performance process.
What does Solitude Monitoring involve? It’s simple! You spend at least 4 hours recreating by your preferred method—hiking, backpacking, horse riding, etc.—in one of the monitoring areas listed below and count how many encounters you have with other humans while you’re out recreating. You log your encounters on a provided data collection form, and submit it to us.
Interested? Contact us to let us know, or visit the link below for more information on the specific monitoring areas.