The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW or BWCA) is a 1,090,000-acre (4,400 km2) wilderness area within the Superior National Forest in a northeastern part of Minnesota. A mixture of forests, glacial lakes, and streams, the BWCAW's preservation as a primitive wilderness began in the 1900s and culminated in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978. While a destination for canoeing, hiking, and fishing, it has also been a focus and debate for its resources in both the forest and mining industries.
Notable Minnesota figures tied to the BWCAW area include conservationist Sigurd Olson, resident Dorothy Molter ("Rootbeer Lady"), and outdoorswoman Justine Kerfoot.
June 9, 1998 - With President Clinton's signature now affixed to the massive transportation bill, two Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness portages become mechanized. Motor vehicles such as trucks will be allowed to pull boats across the narrow forest paths between fishing lakes. Now the US Forest Service will have to determine just how to allow trucks back on the portages and who will get to operate them.
July 17, 1998 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Ely, Minnesota. Program highlights the northern Minnesota town and the BWCA, twenty years after major Congressional legislation in 1978…a controversial Act that banned mining, logging and most motor use. In this first hour of program, MPR’s Rachel Reabe interviews Mark Van Every and Barb Soderberg, representatives from the National Forest Service; and canoe outfitters John Waters and Gary Gotchnik about the various aspects of the BWCA.
July 17, 1998 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Ely, Minnesota. Program highlights the northern Minnesota town and the BWCA, twenty years after major Congressional legislation in 1978…a controversial Act that banned mining, logging and most motor use. In this second hour of program, MPR’s Rachel Reabe interviews Mike Hillman, a local historian, and Jim Krile, Director of the Blandin Community Leadership Program.
July 17, 1998 - MPR’s Leif Enger takes a look at the BWCA twenty years after legislation to protect it, and the divide in viewpoints on the land that have existed throughout the 20th century. Segment includes various interviews and commentary.
July 17, 1998 - A reading of an excerpt from Sigurd Olson’s “Wilderness Days.”
November 18, 1998 - As part of the Our State, Our Forests series, a Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from MPR studios in Duluth, highlighting the Minnesota Northwoods. Rachel Reabe hosts a discussion/debate on forestry in Minnesota with Jim Sanders, forest supervisor for the Superior National Forest; Betsy Daub, forest program director for the Minnesota office of the National Audubon Society; and Wayne Brandt, executive vice-president for Forest Industries.
February 3, 1999 - Minnesota Republican Senator Rod Grams wants to rename the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in honor of a prominent Democrat. Today, Grams introduced a bill to rename the BWCA the Hubert H. Humphrey Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Grams says doing so would honor the late Vice President.
July 5, 1999 - MPR’s Lorna Benson talks with Mark Van Every, spokesperson for the Superior National Forest Service in Duluth, about the BWCA storms. Van Every says it was the worst storm his office has seen the the past decade.
July 6, 1999 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on impact of ferocious storms that hit the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The wind and rain downed trees and power lines across much of Northeastern Minnesota. Residents of Hibbing were assessing flood damage, while resorters on the Gunflint Trail were taking stock of damaged buildings.
July 7, 1999 - MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews campers Jennifer Sly and Mary Marrow of Minneapolis about their experience during the blow down in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The two recall lightning while paddling across Lake Saganaga with two other friends, and heading for shore to set up a temporary campsite.