The social values of wilderness

The purpose of this paper is to describe the value of federally designated wilderness to Americans using social science measures. Social science in this case refers to non-economic values of wilderness to individuals and communities (and excludes intrinsic values). Specific objectives are to posit 14 specific social values accrued from the NWPS and create a preliminary taxonomy of values. The purpose of creating the taxonomy is to organize and communicate the social value of wilderness to policy makers and the general public (who might not have a substantial understanding of wilderness) in a usable format.