North Cascades National Park Service Complex Wilderness Statistics 2000
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Stephen Mather Wilderness
Statistical Summary - 2000

The following summarizes wilderness management statistics for 2000.

The ranger staff of the Wilderness District conducted 155 wilderness patrols during 2000. 31 different persons contributed patrol reports, which covered 44 of the park's 64 trail segments and 19 of the park's 66 cross-country zones at least once. 2,176 hours of patrol time were documented, and 2,437 miles of ground were hiked.

The Staff received 41 compliments and 21 complaints.

Ranger patrols heard 1,694 overflights (0.78 per hour) of all types of aircraft. Rangers heard aircraft noise for 1,932 minutes (1.5% of the time) over wilderness.

In 1993 data gathering began on using social impacts to a draft set of Level of Acceptable Change (LAC) indicators. In addition to its potential application for establishing and quantifying future LAC indicators, this data has value for determining patrol assignments, evaluating the effectiveness of education efforts, establishing compost toilets, and determining other management actions.

Staff encountered 0.94 group per hour, 0.84 group per mile.

Staff observed 11 incidents of vandalism, 164 piles of toilet paper and/or feces (0.07 per mile), 67 illegal fire rings (0.03 per mile), and collected 1812 pieces of litter (0.74 per mile).

Staff observed 146 hiking groups in violation of park regulations (7.2% of all groups), and 4 stock groups in violation (26.7% of stock groups). Violations included permit violations (44), resource violations (33), pet violations (23), improper food storage (21), illegal camping (16), excessive party size (6), litter violations (5), and illegal fires (3), 265 groups were observed with proper food storage, 21 (7.3%) with improper food storage.

Five commissioned rangers issued 29 violation notices for permit violations (17), pet violations (8), camping violation (1), entering closed areas (1), license violation (1), and weapon violation (1).