Federally designated wilderness areas of the United States are to be managed so that natural ecological processes such as fire and other disturbances can function without human interference. Consistent with this intent, policy and law support the strategy of allowing lightning-caused fires to burn for their ecological benefits. However, achieving the objective of stewarding the ecological role of fire has been difficult as the majority of lightning-caused ignitions in wilderness are suppressed for myriad biophysical and social reasons. We examine climate and housing patterns as two drivers that affect the wilderness fire management context. A complex set of biophysical and social factors interact to create this context, a context which varies widely among wilderness areas. Studies suggest that the politics of fire management are magnified during drought years when line officers may become less comfortable with allowing fires to burn, and high housing densities near wilderness areas elevate the consequences of a wilderness fire 'escape.' Both of these drivers are expected to change rapidly in the next 20-50 years, and in this chapter, we examine how changes in broad scale patterns in housing densities and climate change might affect wilderness fire regimes and their management in the 11 western states in the conterminous US. A coarse scale analysis of national housing density and climate data is used to identify those wilderness areas that could experience the most dramatic changes. We propose that these wilderness areas serve as case studies for interdisciplinary action research designed to facilitate the management of natural fire regimes. Two wilderness areas are used as contrasting examples to illustrate the range of challenges that are likely to arise within the next several decades and conclude with a discussion of site-specific potential management strategies and responses for the future. Constraints to WFU and challenges to our ability to meet objectives will continue to intensify in many wilderness areas.