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.
July 4, 2000 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Cathy Quinn, a crew leader on the eastern end of the Gunflint Trail. She says it may be two years before the clean-up is complete and speaks to the enormity of change to landscape.
October 12, 2000 - The clear blues skies over Snowbank Lake filled with billowing smoke, as the Forest Service set a prescribed fire in timber blown down in the July 1999 windstorm. Fire experts consider controlled burn just the first of many more to come in and near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
July 4, 2001 - MPR’s Mary Losure reports that after massive storm in BWCA, which many considered a catastrophe, is providing a rare opportunity for scientists to study how a wilderness recovers from a massive natural disturbance. Losure interviews Alan Heine, forestry Professr at University of Wisconsin; and Lee Frelich forest ecologist at University of Minnesota.
March 4, 2002 - On this Mainstreet Radio report, MPR’s Chris Julin looks into the Ely school district starting a "wilderness high school." School officials are trying to recruit a dozen students from cities around the state. The students will go to Ely High School, but they'll also spend lots of time traveling the Boundary Water wilderness in canoes and on snowshoes.
May 2, 2002 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on the better than predicted regrowth after one of the strongest storms in the BWCA's history. Kelleher interviews various forestry and ecology experts about the new growth and the changes to landscape in the three years since blowdown.
May 9, 2003 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on a Minnesota House Committee has voted to sell state land lying within the Federal Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. But it's raised fierce opposition from the environmental community and from within the Legislature. Report includes various speaking and interview clips.
August 6, 2003 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham interviews author Verena Andermatt Conley about her book "The War Against the Beavers." It tells the tale of leaving the city for a rustic cabin in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
October 21, 2003 - Mainstreet Radio's Bob Kelleher looks back to 1978, when two lawyers drafted an historic compromise that still guides activities in the Boundary Waters today. Report includes various interviews and speech excerpts.
September 3, 2004 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher traces the individuals and movement that led to the U.S. 1964 Wilderness Act, creating the nation's system of federally protected wilderness. Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area was one of the first. Several Minnesotans played prominent roles, including then U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey and a junior college administrator from Ely, named Sigurd Olson.
June 6, 2006 - There's a piece of paradise in northeastern Minnesota. It's called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA). Admirers credit the book "The Singing Wilderness," published in 1956, as part of the inspiration for creating the wilderness area; and they credit author Sigurd Olson for putting into words the reasons humans need wilderness. However, his views inflamed critics who feared Olson and other wilderness advocates worried more about habitat than humans.