Ch. 3 Land - Environment Yukon

and time involved and the lack of
available data. Developments
excluded from both 1995 and
1999 are: seismic lines, grazing
lands, isolated dwellings, cabins,
some placer operations, minor
mineral exploration, and a number
Figure 3.1 Wilderness areas in the Yukon Territory
of power lines, smaller roads and
trails or footpaths.
■ As not all of the computerized
data could be verified, there may
be developments such as roads
that are no longer in use and have
reverted to wilderness. Alterna-
tively, new roads that are not in
the data base may have been
missed. While this is a limitation of
the wilderness map, overall, these
mapping constraints likely balance
out in terms of the total calculation
of wilderness areas of the Yukon.
Wilderness–areas with little human activity other than subsistence use or activities
with low-scale development
Natural–an intermediate category of ‘moderate’ wilderness. There may be evidence
of human impacts such as tote trails, but in many aspects the land remains
wilderness.
Developed–this includes linear developments (such as roads), point developments
(such as mine sites) and area developments (such as forest cut blocks).
Technical Notes
development primary secondary 4x2 4x4
type highway highway road road trail mine hydro placer forestry
developed
category
width (km)
0-5 0-1 0-1 0-1 none 0-5 0-5 0-2 0-2
natural
category
width (km)
>5-10 1-8 1-8 1-5 0-1 >5-10 >5-10 >2-4 >2-4
Because wilderness does not start at the edge of a mine site or highway, areas of
varying widths have been added to accommodate for the transition zone between
development and wilderness. The Technical Notes above show the widths of the
areas included for the various types of development.
wilderness
77%
developed
8%
3 6 ❧ Y U K O N S T A T E O F T H E E N V I R O N M E N T R E P O R T 1999
natural
15%