Items starting with W
water table
The upper surface of groundwater. Below it, the soil is saturated with water.
water yield
The runoff from a watershed, including groundwater outflow.
watershed
The entire region drained by a waterway (or into a lake or reservoir. More specifically, a watershed is an area of land above a given point on a stream that contributes water to the streamflow at that point.
wetlands
Areas that are permanently wet or are intermittently covered with water.
Wilderness Area
An area of public land designated by an Act of Congress to be protected in its natural condition according to the requirements of the Wilderness Act of 1964 with the following characteristics: (1) It generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable; (2) It has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfirmed type of recreation; (3) It has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) It may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic or historical value (Wilderness Act, Sec. 2(c)).
Wilderness Characteristics
Identified by congress in the 1964 wilderness act; namely size, naturalness, outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation, and supplemental values such as geological, archeological, historical, ecological, scenic, or other features. It is required that the area possess at least 5,000 acres or more of contiguous or be of a size to make practical its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; be substantially natural or generally appear to have been primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man being substantially unnoticeable; and have either outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.
Wilderness Inventory Areas (WIA)
These areas are found in Utah that were not made into WSA's but citizens inventoried and found wilderness characteristics. During the Clinton Administration, the BLM re-inventoried these lands, completed in 1999, and found Wilderness characteristics on these lands.
Wilderness Study Area (WSA)
Created by the BLM through the inventory process of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), which required the BLM to inventory lands under its management authority for wilderness quality and protect those lands until Congress decides whether or not to designate the land as Wilderness.