Visitation. A blank spot on the map does not a wilderness make. Look at the access points. Gila wilderness is roadless, huge by American standards. Go to a trailhead parking area during deer season and marvel at the number of stock trailers. Utilization is a primary determinant of wilderness attributes. The brown highways and permanent outfitter camps south of Yellowstone don’t qualify it as wilderness regardless of size, bureaucratic labeling. I used to pack and guide in the Bridger Wilderness in the massive Wind River Range, dodging cattle and huge sheep herds in the summer. The trails are eroded to the bedrock. Meadows are covered in sheep crap, grazed to the dirt. Campsites are denuded. South of YNP, where there’s more topsoil, trails are eroded thigh deep on horseback. I could go on about BWCA, but suffice to say, as utilization increases with population, wilderness attributes will decline. Human caused forest fires belie the idea that tree coverage will ever revert to Pre Columbian diversity or density. Hasn’t happened anywhere I know of. Also, a track of roadless area must be more massive as population grows, which is inverse to the trend. Surrounding development confounds wilderness. Wolves and bears not migratory ungulates can’t be confined to small tracks, hence the conflicts with people increase.
