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.
Reservations for overnight stays in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness this summer were down as of late-May, adding more credence to concerns about a fall-off in visitation to the nation’s most-visited wilderness area.
Voyageurs National Park will celebrate its 35th birthday on Thursday, commemorating the April 8, 1975 date of its authorization by Congress as the country’s 36th national park. The northern Minnesota park will remember the anniversary on its birthday and throughout 2010.
Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Eighth District Congressman Jim Oberstar are working to solve a licensing issue that has proved cumbersome for small-boat operators and fishing guides in northeastern Minnesota and elsewhere.
Voyageurs National Park is inviting public comments on a reservation system and fee structure it is considering for the park’s interior campsites on the Kabetogama Peninsula. Park officials say a reservation system would guarantee campsite availability.
Registration for the lottery drawing for permits to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area is underway until January 15, officials at the Superior National Forest have announced. The drawing opens registration for the 2010 BWCA season.
Part-way through the firearms deer hunting season, harvest numbers are down in Northestern Minnesota. Wildlife managers say the reduction reflects a decrease in deer population.
Despite 100th anniversary activities, the number of people visiting Quetico Provincial Park is down some 10% this year. It’s the second straight year that Quetico visitor numbers have declined.
A new program co-sponsored by author Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods, reviewed in the Spring 2009 print edition of Wilderness News) and the Children & Nature Network inspires families to get outdoors.
A proposal to develop a new state park on property currently owned by U.S. Steel lost steam recently when the company and the State of Minnesota disagreed on the value of the land in question. Might a closer look at the numbers put the park back on track?