Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness: data from 1979-2019 campsite impact monitoring

Over the past forty years, formal and informal campsites (whether by the USDA Forest Service or by users themselves) have been established, and sometimes, left to fade away. Systematic monitoring of these campsites, among other Wilderness resources, is mandated by the Wilderness Act of 1964, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, Central Idaho Wilderness Act and the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (FC-RONRW) Plan. This data publication includes 40 years of tabular data related to campsite conditions and impacts at the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho, which allows wilderness managers to understand how campsite conditions and presence/absence are changing over time. These data were compiled from a variety of sources, including both digital and non-digital data files of the multiple districts managing the FC-RONRW. These data can support an understanding of how wilderness character is changing, particularly as it relates to naturalness and primitive conditions.
The purpose of this project was to compile all known sources of FC-RONRW campsite inventory data into one dataset, clean the data to address inconsistencies (i.e., in naming conventions, variables recorded), and perform initial trend analysis. The data, and the analysis of changes over time, can help managers of the FC-RONRW understand how wilderness character is changing over time, and plan for future management. This study also aimed to understand the potential to ‘crosswalk’ Frissell campsite condition scores with Cole campsite condition scores. Further, the compiled and cleaned dataset provides a foundation for the addition of future data and analyses.