New BWCA report calls for more public engagement
A wide range of stakeholders weigh in on how the BWCAW is managed. Interviews with dozens of wilderness users and other stakeholders resulted in new recommendations.
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Boundary Waters receives ‘International Quiet Park’ designation
The BWCAW’s lack of human noise is recognized as increasingly important. This award honors the quietest places in the world.
Historic photos celebrate centennial of Superior National Forest recreation plan
Forest Service notes anniversary of first major call to protect canoe country.
Crew replaces wooden Stairway Portage with stone, works entirely by hand
The famous wooden staircase connecting Rose and Duncan Lakes in the BWCA was recently replaced with stone. No power tools could be used and the portage stayed open…
New Yorker podcast documents sounds and experiences of Boundary Waters canoe trip
“I came here with my recorder hoping to capture what so envelops me here,” says Alex Kotlowitz about the BWCA. “The mournful wails of loons at night, the lakes telling stories, the skies shouting…”
Canada to resume remote area border crossing permits, allow travel between Boundary Waters and Quetico
Permits shut down due to pandemic will soon be available again to people paddling between U.S. and Canada.
Adventurer Emily Ford faced slush, wind, ice in 200-mile Boundary Waters crossing
Ford says she’d cross a thousand miles of wilderness to help more kids experience the outdoors, and her fundraising will make sure some do.
Boundary Waters Wildfires 2021
Superior Hiking Trail closed, Boundary Waters closed due to fires. Updated maps, photos from fires in Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Superior National Forest as official information is available. Greenwood Fire grows, Moose Lake Fire detected…
Fires force full Boundary Waters closure for first time in 45 years
Forest Service shuts down wilderness area as large wildfires burn and drought continues, efforts to find visitors by canoe, float plane.
Forest Service changes Boundary Waters permit process to increase Leave No Trace awareness
Permit holders will be required to receive training this year to help prevent problems seen last summer.
Icy Wonderland
“I could hear the ice shattering like panes of glass as it came ashore… One moment you can see an endless expanse of skim ice and with a shift of the wind it can be gone, waves lapping the shoreline – sculpting ice as far as the eye can see.”
Ice skating in the Boundary Waters – the slightly obsessive search for “wild ice”
“It’s this magical moment that opens up between paddling and skiing in the Boundary Waters.”
Canoe country curriculum: new educational effort connects students to the Boundary Waters
A new program seeks to reach thousands of Minnesota schoolchildren with lessons from and for the BWCA wilderness.
Path of the Paddle traces route along Canadian wilderness waters
Over 680 miles of canoe route through northwestern Ontario from Thunder Bay on Lake Superior to Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba.
Superfluous stars: Boundary Waters gets rare “Dark Sky” designation
BWCAW awarded prestigious Dark Sky status from international organization concerned with light pollution.
Orchids of the Northwoods – Lady’s Slippers and beyond
“It all began by happenstance…The trail was overgrown, littered with fallen boles, when I noticed a glimmering iridescence unlike anything I had seen before. I had stumbled upon on one of Minnesota’s most common orchid species, the stemless (pink) lady’s slipper, glimmering with rain drops…”
Boreal Birding in the Bogs of Northern Minnesota
The sun casts its auburn spell on the red osier dogwood of a sedge meadow…we head to a bog that attracts many boreal winter birds to the area, particularly in Cook, Minnesota. Why do they come to the bog? How do they live here? What attracts birds to this habitat in northern Minnesota?
Choose Your Own Adventure – Fall Hike on the Upper Gunflint Trail
A fall hike along the edge of the Boundary Waters. Ada Igoe shares one of her favorite trails, easily accessible from the Gunflint, on marked ski trails through aspen and jackpine to incredible vistas…
Wilderness Voices: Travis Novitsky
“Some of my most unforgettable moments are sitting on the shores of a boreal forest lake on a calm night with no wind, watching the northern lights dance overhead while the haunting calls of loons echo across the water.”
Environmental groups sue to stop PolyMet, strengthen Minnesota mining regulations
Eight organizations file lawsuits to challenge permits for the state’s first copper mine and revise rules.