cmahler A presentation sponsored by the advocacy group Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness will discuss the discovery of several siltstone quarries on the BWCAW’s Knife Lake which are believed to date to paleolithic times. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 19 in St. Paul.
Amid a splash of fall colors, the new visitor center at Grand Portage State Park will host its grand opening on Saturday, September 25. The facility will serve as a highway rest area, a state travel information center, and park visitor center.
Proposals for changes to Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park’s management plan — possibly including designated campsites and defined travel routes — are in the public comment stage until mid-October. Park managers are also considering development of a long-distance hiking trail in the park as well as authorizing commercial dog-sledding operations.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will try again to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The USFWS has tried three other times return wolves to state and tribal management, only to be stymied in court.
Minnesota’s Bear Head Lake State near Ely has won a $100,000 contest naming it “America’s Favorite Park.” The park garnered 28% of the 5.7 million votes cast by the public in the America is Your Park campaign sponsored by Coca-Cola.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is seeking public input as part of its Lake Vermilion State Park planning process. The DNR is asking citizens to respond to a short questionnaire on its web-site this month.
University of Minnesota forest ecologist Lee Frelich continues to foresee a transition from forest to savanna taking place at the margins of Minnesota’s north woods. Newly published research suggests that within the century, the climate and ancillary factors will make significant changes to the state’s prairie/forest border.
Tiny freshwater jellyfish have recently made a rare appearance in Namakan Lake along the Ontario border. The creature — Craspedacusta sowerbii — is the size of a small coin and typical shows itself toward the end of warm summers.
A small forest fire is burning south of the Gunflint Trail in a remote section of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the general vicinity of Long Island Lake.
Minnesota’s National Park Legacy, a film made in collaboration with Voyageurs National Park Association and the state’s seven National Park units and produced in partnership with Twin Cities Public Television has been nominated for an Midwest Regional Emmy Award.
Three campsites in Voyageurs National Park that were off-limits due to blad eagles nesting in close proximity have been re-opened, the Park announced recently.
The scenic Tettegouche stone arch on Lake Superior’s North Shore collapsed into the lake in recent days. The arch was a popular feature of Tettegouche State Park.
Voyageurs National Park is seeking volunteers to join Park staff on Friday and Saturday, September 10 and 11 to plant native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers that have cultural and medicinal significance in Ojibwe tradition.
Disease is suspected in the recent deaths of more than 50 young double-crested cormorants residing on Lake Vermilion’s Potato Island.
An inter-agency search using boats and planes was deployed to successfully locate a hiker lost overnight in Voyageurs National Park earlier this month.
Start with the locale’s rock, wetlands, and topography; add an adjoining state park; then throw in the wishes of local residents and it’s no wonder Lake Vermilion State Park poses a developmental challenge to DNR planners.
In an agreement hammered out in a Minneapolis courtroom, AT&T has agreed to suspend construction of a controversial cell phone tower at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness until a trial determines its ultimate fate.
Lake County filed a “friend of the court” brief in Hennepin County District Court this week siding with AT&T Mobility in the cell tower suit brought against the company by Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. The advocacy organization objects to the 450-foot tower due to its impact on scenic beauty in the Boundary Waters.
A year after celebrating the centennial of the park it promotes as well as its own 25th birthday with a storefront presence in Atikokan, the group Friends of Quetico Park is featuring a scaled-down profile in 2010 due to tough financial realities.
Minnesota’s first gypsy moth in caterpillar form was found recently in Duluth, confirming that the exotic pest which can defoliate wide swaths of forest is reproducing in Minnesota.