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The article presents a study aimed to identify the variation in wilderness values across the population. Topics discussed include provisions of the U.S. Wilderness Act; value of wilderness lands in a framework that encompasses ecological, inspirational, and experiential values; and ways in which wilderness values are social facts, and thus may shift and be reproduced with societal trends.

Examines how the United States Bureau of Land Management personnel interpreted roads in the context of wilderness policy implementation. Assessment of ambiguity and changes in policy; Influence of existing understandings on the interpretations of roads; Recommendation of use of multiple analytical frames in interpreting policy.

The article analyzes the status of wilderness in the United States, summarizes the policy problems and suggest the contributions to these problems of research on environmental effects and environmental perception. In the United States, between one and two percent of the 48-State area is wilderness. There is seldom any registration or direct count, and estimates vary from guesses to careful analysis of outfitters' records, parking area counts, and so on. The controversy over wilderness policy is surprisingly strong. There are numerous active organizations and pressure groups working on all sides of the question. Wilderness has been the subject of much legislative activity. The sort of people devoted to the wilderness cause helps to explain the seemingly excessive policy controversy. In general, environmental research seems to present two aspects. One is the effect of the wilderness environment. The second, and closely related, is the perception of the environment. Environmental research on wilderness needs to be supplemented by other types of studies, however. Wilderness research may also contribute to the more general study of landscape perception. Although the complexity of wilderness research has been stressed, yet the problems are relatively simple compared to those of most environments.