A History of Recreational Use and Controversy

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area, established in 1964, has long been identified as an exceptional example of lakeland wilderness. Protection of the border lakes wilderness as a canoe country free of motors and combustion engines has long been a vision for this pristine landscape. Many individuals have recognized how important it is that this area be preserved and appreciated in its natural state.

Throughout this century many people have struggled to find an environmentally responsible balance between the lake country as a recreational resource for resorts, boats, planes, and snowmobiles, and the area as a natural wilderness.

The 1940’s were years of rapid growth in the boundary waters resort industry: by 1948, a total of 41 resorts had been built on the interior of the BWCA. Environmentalists realized that this development was jeopardizing the future of the area. As a result, large scale land acquisition efforts began by the federal government and private organizations. In the end, 350 separate tracts of land—including 45 resorts—were purchased and returned to their natural state.

Responding to the use of the border lakes by floatplanes, activists including Sigurd Olson, Charles Kelly and F.B. Hubachek mobilized, and convinced President Truman to establish an air space reservation over the BWCA. The executive order, signed in 1949, prevented the landing of airplanes by both the general public and by private land owners.

The first regulation of motorboats in the BWCA occurred in 1948 under a U.S. Forest Service management plan which called for boats to be restricted to areas where their use was well established. Snowmobiles, which were considered “winter motor boats” first came to the BWCA in 1950 and by 1962 snowmobile use had become significant.

Motorized or mechanical portages in the BWCA were first used at railroad logging portages, and trucks were later used by resort owners to transport boats. Motorized portages, boats and snowmobile use would later become heated issues.


The Wilderness Acts of 1964 and 1978

The 1978 Wilderness Act was intended to resolve many of the issues of contention once and for all, and to bring quiet to nearly 75 years of land-use and recreation controversy.

In 1964 Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in passing the federal Wilderness Act, which incorporated the BWCA into the National Wilderness System. Congress recognized the importance of protecting this unique canoe country wilderness, which not only is the largest wilderness area east of the Rockies, but has become the most widely used.

The 1964 Act prohibited the use of motorboats and snowmobiles within wilderness areas, with exceptions for areas where use was well established within the BWCA. For Congress and the public, the Boundary Waters continued to represent a challenge. Although the Wilderness Act had directed the U.S.Forest Service to protect the primitive character of the area, it did not totally ban motorboats or snowmobiles—uses which were in conflict with fundamental goals of the Wilderness Act.

The next major legislation to be proposed, the Boundary Waters Wilderness Act of 1978, sought to resolve the lingering issues of motorboat use, number of motorboats, motorized portages, the size of motors, and the use of snowmobiles. The final version of the Act was as a compromise agreement between two citizen groups. The opposing groups were lead by Charles Dayton, a representative of environmental groups, and Ron Walls, a representative of northern Minnesota pro-motor groups. President Carter signed the Boundary Waters Wilderness Act into law on October 21, 1978.

In the nearly twenty years since the Act was passed, administrative rulings and judicial decisions have clarified issues such as limiting the number of visitors and the size of groups, the use and number of motorboats, the use of snowmobiles for trail grooming, and the use of motorized portages. One of the most recent rulings had to do with motorized portages. In July, 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that required Four Mile Portage, Prairie Portage and the portage between Lake Vermillion and Trout Lake be closed to motor vehicles.



1996: A Flurry Of Proposed Wilderness Legislation

The BWCA and portions of Voyageurs not opened to motorized use amounts to only two percent of the 84,000 square miles that lie within Minnesota’s borders.

In 1996, 8th District (northeastern Minnesota) Congressman James Oberstar and U.S. Senator Rod Grams (Minnesota) introduced bills (h.r.3880 and s.1738) in the U.S. Congress that would have returned motorized transportation to three BWCA portages, increased the motorized water surface area of the BWCA from about 21 percent to about 31 percent, and created a “management council,” consisting primarily of local persons, to guide BWCA issues. Congressman Oberstar and Senator Grams also introduced legislation that would establish local management council for Voyageurs National Park and remove all restrictions on snowmobiles, motorboats, and floatplanes in the park.

These bills were challenged by Congressman Bruce Vento’s Minnesota National Treasures Conservation and Protection Act (h.r.3470). This bill proposed to enhance the conservation and protection of the BWCA and Voyageurs by adding 14,000 acres to the BWCA wilderness, limiting or closing motorboat access to three lakes in the BWCA, extending the aircraft prohibitions to include the new land additions, and adding 78,000 acres of the Kabetogama Peninsula to the Federal Wilderness Area in Voyageurs.

President Clinton threatened to veto the Omnibus Parks Bill if pro-motor BWCA legislation was included. This threat succeeded in stopping the measures by Congressman Oberstar and Senator Grams to attach their bills to the Omnibus Parks Bill.

Congress adjourned without passing the Oberstar, Grams or Vento bills introduced in 1996.



The 1996-1997 Mediation Process Reaches Impasse

Two mediation efforts, one concerning the BWCA and the other Voyageurs National Park, concluded after nine months of meetings without resolution. After the 1996 Congress failed to pass Voyageurs National Park’s legislation, a 13 member panel representing various groups was appointed to resolve the conflict between motorized recreation and protection of the natural resources through means of mediated dispute resolution. The panel began meeting in August of 1996 and met every other week for most of nine months.

After using almost 20 meeting days it ended with 10 of 12 members supporting Draft 7, a six-point compromise that offered first-time stability for management of Voyageurs National Park. However, the mediation process required consensus to pass agreements. Two of the appointed groups, Citizen’s Council for Voyageurs National Park (CCVNP) and the Minnesota United Snowmobile Association (MNUSA), refused to condone a compromise resulting in the groups adjournment without an agreement.

Likewise, a Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness mediation process, conducted by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) also began in August at the request of Senator Wellstone. The mediation process continued through the winter and spring with the various representatives offering more than a dozen major proposals in an effort to resolve some of the major motorized use issues. The mediation process concluded at its final session on April 28th without compromise or resolution on motorized use issues, truck traffic on wilderness portages or change in motorboat lakes.



1997 - Today

Legislation and management concerns for both sides of the border continue today. On July 4, 1999, storms caused serious damage to nearly 400,000 acres (over 600 square miles) of forests in and around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. An estimated 30 million trees were downed—many fell to the ground, but a portion remained jackknifed in the air, drying in the sun and creating conditions for a potentially catastrophic fire.

The Forest Service began reducing the fuel load in fall 1999, logging 3,000 acres outside the BWCA. A year later, logging and prescribed burning began on an additional 10,000 acres. To further reduce the fire threat on the 267,000 acres in the BWCA hardest hit by the storm, the Forest Service proposed in 2001 to burn 70,000 acres of dead trees in the protected area. Upon completion, the burned areas would reduce the chance of a large fire spreading too rapidly across the forest.

The challenge of maintaining the wilderness character of the region continues today.

> More: Quetico Superior Timeline

> More: Wilderness News Article: The Quetico Superior Region—100 Years of Stewardship Beyond Boundaries (PDF)