n 1999 a huge wind storm came through the Boundary Waters blowing down millions of trees, including thousands of 100' tall much coveted White Pine. Logging companies offered to come in and clean it up, they even said they would use helicopters so they wouldn't disturb the area but they weren't allowed to. Back then they said if you don't take out all of those trees it will go up like a tinderbox, but the greens didn't care they said that is just nature taking its course.

By Elmer Beauregard

Photos from MPR
I have been to the Boundary Waters many times and have seen it change over the years and its not Global Warming that's causing the change but rather man's lack of involvement.
When I first started going to the Boundary Waters in the 70's the portages were well marked, they had signs telling you how long the portage was in rods (which is the length of a canoe) and what the name of the next lake was. This was very helpful when navigating because it showed you on the map where you were, those signs are gone now. I have gotten lost a couple of times because of the lack of these markers.
At some portages there would be crude dock made out of a couple of logs where people could load or unload their canoes, those are all gone. The portages used to be well maintained if a tree fell across it, it was removed. Now the fallen trees are just left there and you have to step over them or under them, with a canoe or a pack on your back this can be challenging.

My main pet peeve however is the canoe rests are gone. On the longer portages every 50 rods or so there would be a little path of the main portage and a crude canoe rest was made. It was just a horizontal log nailed to a tree with a Y support about 8' off the ground. You could just walk right up to it with your canoe set the back of it on the ground and just walk out of it. Then to get started again you would just walk under the canoe, pick it up and you were on your way again. Sometimes there would be 4 or 5 of these on one portage, they were quite handy but these are all gone. Now when you get tired you have to find a natural canoe rest where 2 trees are close to each other and form a V or you just shove the tip of your canoe into a large tree.
These natural canoe rests aren't as safe and I think damage more trees than the man-made ones which brings me to my main point. What seems to be going on in the BWCA these days is the premise that anything man does in nature is bad and anything that nature does is good. It is my belief that man has a role in nature I think we were put here as stewards of the land and we are not doing our job.
In 1999 a huge wind storm came through the Boundary Waters blowing down millions of trees, including thousands of 100' tall much coveted White Pine. Logging companies offered to come in and clean it up, they even said they would use helicopters so they wouldn't disturb the area but they weren't allowed to. Back then they said if you don't take out all of those trees it will go up like a tinderbox, but the greens didn't care they said that is just nature taking its course.


Well today nature is taking its course, the BWCA is burning and it will be changed forever. The Greens are saying that this fire is a good thing and when the forest comes back as deciduous they will just say this was caused by global warming. But I say it was caused by poor forest management.

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