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This report summarizes the background, process, results, lessons learned, and recommendations from the 2011 Wilderness Fellows Initiative. This initiative was a new effort of the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service to preserve the character of wilderness by assessing trends in wilderness character in the National Wildlife Refuge System NWRS. Two questions have been used to frame the success of this initiative: Did it work? and Was it worthwhile? Following the results, the report covers recommendations for the initiatives and for the wilderness character monitoring in the refuge system. Appendices follow, which include a summary of participating refuges, summary of wilderness character monitoring measures by refuge, summary of wilderness character monitoring measures by wilderness quality and a summary of refuge project leader responses to debriefing questions.