The purpose of monitoring wilderness character is to improve wilderness stewardship by providing managers a tool to assess how selected actions and conditions related to wilderness character are changing over time. Wilderness character monitoring provides information to help answer two key questions about wilderness character and wilderness stewardship: 1. How is wilderness character changing over time? 2. How do stewardship actions affect this change in wilderness character? Line officers need the answers to these questions to assess the outcomes of past decisions on wilderness character and to make informed decisions about future actions. Regional and forest wilderness program managers need these answers to track trends in wilderness character over time and to review the effectiveness of implementing agency wilderness policy. On-the-ground managers and rangers in an individual wilderness also need these answers to help them assess the outcomes of their efforts to preserve wilderness character.