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Quetico Visitor Numbers Down Again

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.

Voyageurs Plans Burn for Thursday

Voyageurs National Park officials plan to burn an area on Tar Point near Blind Indian Narrows in Namakan Lake Thursday. The burn is intended to help determine what effect fire has on archeological artifacts and help determine the effects of fire on vegetation.

McGuffins Release Quetico: Into the Wild

The celebration of Quetico Provincial Park’s 100th Anniversary continues … in book form! Renowned nature photographers Gary and Joanie McGuffin have produced Quetico: Into the Wild after nearly three years of photographic and paddle-and-portage effort.

Grand Portage Rendezvous This Weekend

In a comemoration of the great mid-summer rendezvous of the fur trade era, Grand Portage National Monument will host the 2009 Rendezvous Days and Pow Wow starting this Friday.

Friends of the Quetico Celebrates 25 Years

It’s the 100th aniversary of Quetico Provincial Park this year, but 2009 is also the 25th birthday for the Friends of Quetico Park, an organization whose objective is “the preservation of Quetico Provincial Park as a unique wilderness area.”

Grand Portage State Park Closed Weekdays

Grand Portage State Park will only be open on weekends until mid-August, due to site preparation work for a new 5800 square foot visitor center. The park will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, but parking will be limited.

Guns in Voyageurs: Not Yet

A law passed in May that will allow loaded firearms in Voyageurs and other national parks is not in effect yet. That’s the message Voyaguers officials are spreading, noting that the law doesn’t take effect until February 22, 2010.

Paddlers Celebrate 100th for Quetico, Superior

A paddling expedition that pushed off yesterday is celebrating the 100th birthdays of the Superior National Forest and Quetico Provincial Park. Representatives of the Heart of the Continent Partnership will paddle a 24-foot voyageur canoe across the region.

Island Life Author to Speak at Voyageurs

Ted Gostomski, the co-author of Island Life: An Isle Royale Nature Guide and a Biologist/Science Writer at the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Program of the National Park Service, will speak on Friday at Voyaguers National Park in International Falls.

Report: State Sweetened Vermilion Park Deal

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is reporting that the State of Minnesota looked for ways to sweeten the deal for U.S. Steel to sell land to the state for a state park on Lake Vermilion. The paper questions whether laws were skirted to procure land for the park strongly supported by Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Namakan Sturgeon Study Enters Third Year

A study examining the health of the Namakan Reservoir’s sturgeon population has entered its third year. The study, which could have an impact on proposed hydroelectric projects on Ontario’s Namakan River, seeks to establish baseline information on health of the species of “special concern” in both Minnesota and Ontario.

The 100th Anniversary of the Quetico Superior Region

2009 marks the 100th Anniversary of the initial formation of what would become Quetico Provincial Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. What started as a long and jagged process of preservation and restoration resulted in a huge, roadless and protected forest being celebrated today.