On June 10, 2003, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness is hosting an event in Ely, Minnesota -- in the heart of the Superior National Forest -- to unveil "Preserving the Canoe Country Heritage: A Wilderness Study on Permanently Protecting Minnesota's Remaining Roadless Areas." The study is based on the work of more than 50 field volunteers who contributed to the comprehensive study. Participants will meet at the Ely Chamber of Commerce and then travel together to visit one of the proposed wilderness areas. Later in the week, the group will host a similar event to unveil the wilderness study at the North Mississippi Interpretive Center in Minneapolis, MN.
Background
Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is home to moose, wolves, and bear and -- at more than one million acres -- is the largest Wilderness in the eastern half of the country. Designated by Congress in 1964 as one of the original units in the National Wilderness Preservation System, it is Minnesota's only National Forest wilderness. Over the past few years, field volunteers in Minnesota have been working to identify the few remaining unprotected roadless areas in the Superior National Forest, many of which are adjacent to the existing BWCAW. These special places include areas like Eagle Mountain, Agassa Lake, and Turnip, Parsnip and Squash Lakes (known as the Vegetable Lakes.) Volunteers spent hundreds of hours hiking, paddling, photographing and recording data about these wild places in an effort to identify them for a comprehensive study of roadless areas in the forest. This is the first step in the process to permanently protect these last remaining Minnesota treasures.
>> Additional background
For More Information
