North Cascades National Park Service Complex Wilderness Statistics 1997
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Stephen Mather Wilderness
Statistical Summary - 1997

The following summarizes wilderness management statistics for 1997.

The ranger staff of the Wilderness District conducted 143 wilderness patrols during 1997. 18 different persons contributed patrol reports, which covered 35 of the park's 43 trail segments and 24 of the park's 66 cross-country zones at least once. 2,302 hours of patrol time were documented, and 2,381 miles of ground were hiked.

Ranger patrols heard 1,524 overflights (all types of aircraft). Rangers heard aircraft noise for 1,796 minutes over wilderness.

Rangers report that of 169 backcountry groups observed in camp, 133 groups (78.7%) met the park's regulatory requirements regarding proper food storage.

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 observed 97 piles of toilet paper and/or feces, 74 illegal fire rings, and collected 2,795 pieces of litter.

Rangers issued 16 citations and corrected 124 violations by verbal contact. These verbal contacts involved 116 (0.7% of all groups) hiking groups and 6 stock groups (33% of all stock groups) of the 1,755 groups observed by rangers during the year. Staff observed 10 acts of vandalism.

The four "other" citations included, tampering with government property (2), illegally taking wildlife (1), and weapon (1).

There were 46 search and/or rescues documented by case incident report. Total cost: $3,116 ($1,096 in programmed, $2,020 in unprogrammed costs). There were no fatalities and 23 injuries or illnesses.

The Wilderness has 36 stock campsites (11% of all Wilderness campsites). They are located at 29 camps. The number of permits issued was 18 groups consisting of 17 users and 90 stock (average party size 5 stock).

Backcountry overnight use was 31,975 visitor nights. This represents a 12% reduction from 1996 use. The Wilderness Information Center recorded 9,933 visitors in 1997, also a 12% drop. The staff encountered 1,737 hiking groups consisting of 4,459 hikers (ave. party size 2.57 persons) and 18 stock groups consisting of 17 users and 90 stock (ave. party size 5 stock). This equates to an average of 0.76 group/1.94 persons encountered in wilderness per hour, or 0.74 group/1.88 persons per mile.

The following tables show backcountry visitation. The first table is data from the BCRES computer software for the Stephen Mather Wilderness. The second table is from monthly use reports for all of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. In the first table, the relatively low visitor nights for 1992 and 1991 probably reflect software glitches (BCRES was first used in 1991) rather than low visitation.