Campsite condition data for three drainages in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

This data publication contains baseline campsite condition data and trend for campsites in the Bear Creek, Big Creek, and Sweeney Creek drainages in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Montana. These drainages represent varied use intensity. Big Creek was selected as a high-use drainage. Bear Creek was considered to be moderate-use drainage and Sweeney Creek was considered a low-use drainage. In each drainage, the most likely places for camping were searched and all campsites in these areas were located. Measurements include basic campsite information such as groundcover disturbance, impact to standing trees and roots, and size of disturbed area. If campsites had more than minimal disturbance, other measurements were taken such as vegetation type, vegetation coverage, soils, dominant species, landform, distance to trail, distance to water, number of fire rings, tree damage, campsite disturbance, and other standard campsite data.
The purpose of the study was to examine change in the number and condition of campsites in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Montana since the 1970s.
These data were originally made available on the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute site: http://leopold.wilderness.net. The data were converted from XLS to XLSX files in May 2012, metadata created, data packaged into 1 zip file, and made available via the Forest Service Research Data Archive. Minor metadata updates on 12/08/2016.