Title

Beyond Wilderness: Broadening the Applicability of Limits of Acceptable Change

Authors

Mark W. Brunson, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Report

Journal/Book Title

Proceedings — Limits of Acceptable Change and related planning processes: progress and future directions.

Publisher

USDA Forest Service

Publication Date

1997

First Page

44

Last Page

48

Abstract

The Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) process helps managers preserve wilderness attributes along with recreation opportunities. Ecosystem management likewise requires managers to balance societal and ecosystem needs. Both are more likely to succeed through collaborative planning. Consequently, LAC can offer a conceptual framework for achieving sustainable solutions outside protected areas. Nonwilderness management has more complex objectives and constituencies, but the basic progression of issue identification, standard-setting, impact monitoring, and strategies for mitigating unacceptable impacts can be applied nonetheless. A major conceptual shift is required, however, in that the objective of ecosystem management often is not to restrict anthropogenic change but to direct it.

Comments

USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Report INT-371.

Recommended Citation

Brunson, M.W. 1998. Beyond wilderness: Broadening the applicability of limits of acceptable change. In: McCool, Stephen F.; Cole, David N., comps. Proceedings - limits of acceptable change and related planning processes: progress and future directions: from a workshop held at the University of Montana''s Lubrecht Experimental Forest. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-GTR-371. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station: 44-48