The Quetico-Superior region of Minnesota and Canada bring to mind lake country—a landscape characterized by glacier carved lakes filled with clear, cold and clean water. Yet the list of possible impacts on northern Minnesota water quality is long: proposed mining, climate change, invasive species, nutrient loading, and algal blooms to name just a few. In some places, like Lake of the Woods, evidence suggests that changes are already under way.
The Summer Issue of Wilderness News is Online – we look to the future of Minnesota’s Wild Rice, celebrate the fiftieth year of the Wilderness Act that created the BWCAW, and so much more.
Features about winter camping in the wilderness, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, a profile of Wilderness Canoe Base, and more.
By Alissa Johnson When I was a kid, paddling the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with my family, I didn’t realize that the final word in its name had only been …
Check out the Cover Story: Meet Erik Simula Birch Bark Canoe Builder, North House Folk School’s Instructor-in-Residence Program, YMCA Camp Widjiwagan and Archaeologists Reconstruct the Past in the Quetico-Superior region…
The Summer Issue of Wilderness News is now online. Check out the Cover Story: Sustainable – Ely Envisioning a mining-free future for the Boundary Waters, Wilderness Voices featuring Quetico Ranger Janice Matichuk, Camp Manito-wish and Meet Board Member…
The Spring Issue of Wilderness News is in the mail and online. What’s Inside: A special feature on proposed mining near the BWCAW, a look at Northern Tier High Adventure Program, and more…
A new group of outdoor enthusiasts is becoming a force for good on the North Shore—one that might be surprising to fans of traditional wilderness travel…
The Summer 2012 Issue of Wilderness News is in the mail and now online. The theme is Working Together to Protect Wilderness — check out a few highlights below. What’s …
“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.
The Quetico Superior Foundation launches a new look for the print edition of Wilderness News with the Spring 2012 Issue.
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.
The Pagami Creek Fire, which has so far consumed some 100,000 acres of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness forest, is the largest forest fire in Minnesota since 1918.
By Greg Breining Imagine the Coldwell Peninsula—a dark fist jutting from the Ontario shore of Lake Superior, five miles across, with rocky knuckles. Poised on one knuckle, like the stone of …
Fewer visitors are spending the night in the Quetico-Superior region’s wilderness areas compared to 15 years ago, but visits by day-trippers may be on the rise.
The dream of a Lake Vermilion State Park is now a reality after the State of Minnesota and U.S. Steel Corporation signed a deal yesterday that put 3,000 acres of company land along the picturesque lake under state ownership.
In 2006, Quetico Provincial Park’s French River proved impassable by kayak—so Ken Lister crawled upriver through the slippery, overgrown underbrush. His destination? French River Rapids. Lister suspected that an oil painting by Canadian artist Paul Kane portrayed the rapids. If correct, he would disprove widely held notions about the painting’s origins, and possibly discover a new understanding of the fur trade.
To meet Paul Schurke in person is to forget that you are standing in the company of an Arctic explorer. He wears the crinkled eyes and bronzed face of a life …
In 1964, Fred Winston received an inquiry following Wilderness News’ inaugural publication: “I can see that there are many sides to Minnesota’s wilderness problem. But which side are you on? What are you trying to prove?” In his reply, Fred Winston set the tone for the Quetico Superior Foundation’s role in the ever changing wilderness debate and set an example of activism.
Today’s kids do not connect with the outdoors or nature because societal changes have taken away the opportunity to do so. National park and wilderness lovers take heed; the implications are significant for child development, but they are also crucial for the long-term protection of natural places.