January 30, 1998 - Two men were ticketed and the U.S. Forest Service offices in Duluth shut down following a sit-in yesteray. Many of the demonstrators had come to Duluth from the Little Alfie timber site in the Superior National Forest, where they've been holding a vigil outdoors since mid-December. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher reports.
January 21, 1998 - President Clinton is expected to recommend this month that a moratorium be placed on logging road construction in some National Forests. It's unknown if Minnesota's Chippewa or Superior National Forests might be affected, although bills to stop federal subsidies for roads in all National Forests are likely to be presented again in Congress. Minnesota loggers are worried about the direction a moratorium would represent, while environmentalists say it's a first, necessary step toward more responsible forest management.
January 2, 1998 - Protesters with the environmental group "Earth First!" briefly stopped a logging truck in the Superior National Forest today, but allowed it to pass when they learned it wasn't involved in a controversial timber cut. The protesters have returned to block the logging of 110-year old trees at the site called "Little Alfie." Other environmentalists filed suit today in Minneapolis Federal Court, seeking an injunction to keep loggers away from the old trees.
July 31, 1997 - MPR’s Perry Finelli talks with Becky Rom, of the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness; and Mike Forsman, St. Louis County Commissioner about BWCA legislation in Congress and the mediation process.
July 3, 1997 - Officials representing Minnesota's return to NHL Hockey were selling the team and it's proposed St Paul Home to greater Minnesota today. The group is seeking a large state contribution toward a new arena to serve as home for the hockey franchise. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher reports form Duluth some outstate lawmakers see an opportunity to trade support for the arena for support for some local projects.
June 17, 1997 - The Duluth School Board decides today whether municipal buses should continue transporting some of the district's students.The death last winter of a young girl has raised parents' fears that Duluth Transit Authority buses aren't as safe as conventional school buses. City officials say municipal buses are safe, and the loss of the transportation contract would force a reduction in public bus service in Duluth and nearby Superior, Wisconsin. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher reports from Duluth.
May 20, 1997 - Public and private landholders are challenging Chippewa Indian's plans to take fish and other game in eastern Minnesota, under terms of an 1837 treaty. But miles north of the region under contention, Chippewa Indians have been harvesting fish and wild rice and hunting moose and deer on public lands with little fanfare, and no public protests.
April 29, 1997 - Federal Mediation over the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness ended without any settlement on the use of trucks to pull boats between lakes in the wilderness. But Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone may now support re-opening two of the former truck portages, based on a plan that was narrowly defeated in mediation. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher reports from Duluth. The truck portages represent the deepest division among Minnesotans over the region's management. For decades, trucks pulled motorized boats between Boundary Waters lakes on which motors are allowed. But a Federal court closed the four portages to trucks based on what some consider an overly-narrow interpretation of the 1978 law which created the wilderness area. Wilderness advocates won their argument that trucks are inappropriate and th
April 4, 1997 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports that sixteen exhausted negotiators gave up their efforts Thursday to settle the most contentious management issue in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. In twenty-two meetings over eight months, the panel managed to find consensus on minor disputes over the use of the federal wilderness area, but there was no agreement on the one issue that led to their convening.
February 19, 1997 - Mediators trying to write new a management plan for Voyageurs National Park have again found themselves stuck on an old issue: the use of snowmobiles within the Park. Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Kelleher reports from Duluth: After meeting for months and finding solutions to dozens of management questions, the 12 active members of the Voyageurs Mediation panel have found themselves split over the single most contentious surrounding use of the park: snowmobiling on the park's largest land area, the Kabetogama Peninsula. Mediators agreed in January that the snow machines should be allowed on the peninsula's chain-of-lakes trail, but they parted over a proposal to limit