The Wilderness Canvas: YMCA Camp Menogyn
By Fred Sproat Wilderness is many different things to many different people; it can be a grocery store or a sanctuary, a playground or a classroom. It can be all of …
Editor
Quetico Superior Foundation: Giving All Voices A Fair Hearing
By Alissa Johnson When I was in high school—the mid-1990s—a debate arose over motorboat access to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). I went to a demonstration to keep motors …
Ernest C. Oberholtzer: Lifetime Advocate
“Destroy the beauty of the visible shores and islands of these lakes and rivers and you destroy the whole charm and pleasurable utility of the region for the public,” Ober wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Gray Hairs: Saving a Place for Youth in the Great Outdoors
By Cliff Jacobson, Wilderness Guide & Outdoor Writer Last year, I presented a program for the Minnesota Canoe Association. About 150 people attended. With the exception of six teenage girls—who were …
Discovering the Birds of the Boundary Waters
By Julie Neitzel Carr Trekking the Boundary Waters, my portages followed a predictable path; I would double-check the distance on my map, hoist up a heavy Duluth pack, or if it …
Fostering Wilderness Advocacy – Wilderness News Spring Issue
The Quetico Superior Foundation launches a new look for the print edition of Wilderness News with the Spring 2012 Issue.
Special Issue: Fire in the BWCAW
In September 2011, a naturally-occurring wildfire burned over 100,000 acres in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness this year. We follow its progression through interviews, revealing photos, and maps, how the fire started, grew, and the response and containment efforts.
Pagami Creek Fire in the BWCAW
The Pagami Creek Fire burns 93,000 acres, blazes into the largest naturally occurring wildfire in a century. By Charlie Mahler In the heat of summer, with the Boundary Waters Canoe Area …
Inside the Pagami Creek Fire
A couple of boundary waters paddlers found themselves on Lake Insula on Sept 12 when the Pagami Creek Fire took off – this video shows them caught off guard by the …
Wilderness News Summer Edition is Online
The Summer 2011 Issue of Wilderness News Print Edition is now online! Click here to download the PDF > Featured in this issue: Chik-Wauk Museum and …
Frank B. Hubachek, Jr. (“Bill”) 1923-2011
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Frank B. Hubachek, Jr. (“Bill”) on January 21, 2011. The 2010 summer issue of Wilderness News featured Hub’s Place, the …
Invasive Species in the Boundary Waters—A question of what, not if
In July, University of Minnesota forest ecologist Lee Frelich and Doug and Peggy Wallace, coordinators of a citizen’s monitoring group, bushwhacked up a ridge in the Wolf Lake inventoried roadless area …
Meet Charles Kelly
President emeritus of the Oberholtzer Foundation and QSF Board Member When Charles Kelly was five years old, he would climb out of bed, grab his pillow and his blanket and lie …
Basswood Beach Resort and Canoe Trips
Travel back in time with an historic family fishing lodge that thrived in what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness…
Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center
By Rob Kesselring Take a drive to the end of the Gunflint Trail and spend a few hours at Chik-Wauk Museum, the word serendipity will come to mind. Could there …
MN State Parks Suffer during Shutdown
MN State Parks are losing $1 million a week in camping permits, trail fees, fishing licenses and concessions as the government shutdown drags on during the height of tourist season. How will the economies of northern Minnesota towns be affected?
Mining Update
By Charlie Mahler While industry leaders, environmental activists, and northeastern Minnesota stakeholders await publication of the revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement for PolyMet Mining’s proposed copper-nickel and precious metals mine, mining …
Building Wooden Canoes for a Rite of Passage
Picture yourself venturing out for the first time into the wilderness of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Imagine the combination of serenity and wonderment you experience as you ply these pristine lakes and rivers, knowing that you are carrying all you need to survive in a sleek, seventeen-foot, skin-on-frame canoe. Now imagine that you just built that canoe with your own hands over the course of eight days. For six teenage apprentices with Urban Boatbuilders, this was the culminating event in the summer of 2010.
On the Scent of Adventure
By Rob Kesselring It’s the smell more than anything, whether you are varnishing paddle blades in preparation for the upcoming canoe season, or spring cleaning and deliberating on whether to put …