Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI) Wilderness: 2011 visitor survey data

This data publication contains data from a 2011 quantitative study on Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, in California, on wilderness user perceptions of existing wilderness quality and existing management practices and facilities. Data include individual visitor and group demographics, frequency of visits, and trip characteristics such as: activities, use of technology, length of trip, size of group, type of fuel used, and method of deterring negative bear-human interaction.
The National Park Service will use information from this survey to help make the Wilderness Stewardship Plan responsive to legislative and policy guidelines as well as acknowledging a changing client base of American citizens and foreign visitors. Information from this survey will be used to determine how users feel about administrative facilities such as ranger stations, crew camps, and radio repeaters; user support facilities such as food storage lockers, bridges, and signs; research support facilities such as wells, plot markers, weirs and snow pillows; trail quality; hand held technology use, and short term manipulations of conditions to achieve long-term naturalness goals. Data from this survey will also be used to determine how different kinds of visitors (e.g. overnight users, hikers, stock users) feel about the level of isolation and immersion in nature they perceive, how they evaluate encounters with others and how they evaluate visitor impacts and management actions taken to control those impacts; how different kinds of users define the most important elements of the wilderness environment and social conditions, such as naturalness, wildness, challenge, self-reliance, crowding and aesthetics; and how current visitor use characteristics, attitudes and use patterns differ from those observed in the past and at other places.
Original metadata date was 10/30/2014. Minor metadata updates on 12/14/2016.