Places > United States > Minnesota > Fall Lake Park
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
Photo Credit: Wikipedia user Reid Priedhorsky
Did you know that as an Xploritall member, you can create your own custom Travel Guide? Just register for your FREE account, add places to your wishlist, and the Trip Planner will organize all of your saved places into a Travel Guide for you.
Geography
The BWCAW is located on the U.S.-Canadian border in the Arrowhead Region of Minnesota. Along with Voyageurs National Park to the west and the Canadian Quetico and La Verendrye Provincial Parks to the north, they make up a large area of contiguous wilderness lakes and forests called the "Quetico-Superior country", or simply the Boundary Waters. Lake Superior lies to the east of the Boundary Waters.
The continental divide between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay watersheds runs northeast–southwest through the east side of the BWCAW, following the crest of the Superior Upland and Gunflint Range. The crossing of the divide at Height of Land Portage was the occasion for ceremony and initiation rites for the fur-trading Voyageurs of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The wilderness also includes the highest peak in Minnesota, Eagle Mountain (2,301 feet / 701 m), part of the Misquah Hills.
The two main communities with visitor services near the BWCAW are Ely and Grand Marais, Minnesota. The smaller town of Tofte is another gateway community. Several historic roads, such as the Gunflint Trail, the Echo Trail, and Fernberg Road allow access to the many wilderness entry points.
Natural History
Geology
The lakes of the BWCAW are located in depressions formed by differential erosion of the tilted layers of the Canadian Shield. For the past two million years, massive sheets of ice have repeatedly scoured the landscape; the last glacial period ended with the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the Boundary Waters about 17,000 years ago. The resulting depressions in the landscape later filled with water, becoming the lakes of today.
Many varieties of Precambrian bedrock are exposed, including granite, basalt, greenstone, gneiss, as well as metamorphic rocks derived from volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Greenstone of the Superior craton located near Ely, Minnesota is up to 2.7 billion years old, some of the oldest exposed rock in the United States. Igneous rocks of the Duluth Complex comprise the bedrock of the eastern Boundary Waters. Ancient microfossils have been found in the banded iron formations of the Gunflint Chert.
Forest Ecology
The Boundary Waters area contains both the boreal forest (taiga) and a mixed conifer-hardwood forest known as the North Woods, which is a transition province between the northern boreal forest and deciduous forests to the south. The ranges of the plants and animals continue north into southern Canada and south into the rest of the upper Great Lakes region. Trees found within the wilderness area include conifers such as red pine, eastern white pine, jack pine, balsam fir, white spruce, black spruce, and white-cedar, as well as deciduous birch, aspen, ash, and maple. Blueberries are common in many parts of the BWCAW, as are raspberries. The BWCAW is estimated to contain some 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) of old growth forest, woods which may have burned but which have never been logged. Forest fires were a natural part of the Boundary Waters ecosystem before fire suppression efforts during the 20th century, with recurrence intervals of 30 – 300 years in most areas.
On July 4, 1999, a powerful wind storm, or derecho, swept across Minnesota and southern Canada, knocking down millions of trees and affecting about 370,000 acres (1,500 km2) within the BWCAW. This event became known officially as the Boundary Waters-Canadian Derecho, commonly referred to as "the Boundary Waters blowdown". Although campsites and portages were quickly cleared after the storm, an increased risk of wildfire continues to remain a concern due to the large number of downed trees. The U.S. Forest Service has undertaken a schedule of prescribed burns to reduce the forest fuel load in the event of a wildfire.
The first major wildfire within the blowdown occurred in August 2005, burning approximately 1,400 acres (5.7 km2) north of Seagull Lake in the northeastern BWCAW. In July 2006 the Cavity Lake fire burned over 30,000 acres (120 km2), while the Turtle Lake Fire burned 2,000 acres (8 km2). In May 2007, there was another wildfire that originated around Ham Lake, just to the east of the Cavity Lake fire. The Ham Lake Fire was the most extensive wildfire in Minnesota in 90 years. It burned from May 5 to May 20, and eventually covered 76,000 acres (310 km2) in Minnesota and Ontario. The Pagami Creek Fire, sparked by lightning in August 2011, ultimately grew to over 92,000 acres (370 km2), spreading beyond the wildnerness boundary to threaten homes and businesses. Smoke from the Pagami Creek Fire drifted east and south as far as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Ontario, Chicago, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia.
Fauna
Animals native to the region include moose, beaver, bears, bobcats, bald eagles, peregrine falcons and loons. The Boundary Waters is within the range of the largest population of wolves in the contiguous United States, as well as an unknown number of Canada lynx. Woodland caribou once inhabited the region but have disappeared due to loss of habitat, encroachment by deer, and the brainworm parasite carried by deer which is harmful to caribou and moose populations. Increasing deer numbers may also affect the future of vegetation in this region as they favor some species over others, such as white-cedar.
Development & Protection
In the 1920s Edward Backus, a local industrialist, proposed building several dams in the region, which was successfully opposed by Ernest Oberholtzer. By 1926, the Superior Roadless Area had been designated by the U.S. Forest Service, offering some protection from mining, logging, and hydroelectric projects, although logging would not cease completely until 1979. The Wilderness Act of 1964 made the BWCAW legal wilderness as a unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System, while the 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act established the Boundary Waters regulations much as they are today with motors allowed only on a few large entry point lakes.
Several aspects of the management of the BWCAW remain controversial today, including the use of motorboats, snowmobiles, motorized portages, permit availability and allocation, as well as suggestions to expand the wilderness area.
Many groups, such as the Boy Scouts and other service organizations, volunteer in the area to maintain the portage trails.
Recreation
The BWCAW contains over a thousand lakes and attracts visitors with its reputation for canoeing, canoe touring, fishing, backpacking, dog sledding, and remote wilderness character. The BWCAW has nearly 2,200 backcountry campsites. The BWCAW is one of Minnesota's top tourist attractions, drawing visitors from all over the United States as well as abroad. Permits are required for all overnight visits to the wilderness area. Quota permits are required for groups taking an overnight paddle, motor, or hiking trip, or a motorized day-use trip into the BWCAW from May 1 through September 30. These permits must be reserved in advance. From October 1 through April 30, permit reservations are not necessary, but a permit must be filled out at the permit stations located at each entry point. Each permit much specify the trip leader, the specific entry point and the day of entry. The permits are for an indefinite length (although you are only allowed one entry into the wilderness), and you can not stay in one campsite for more than 14 nights. About 1/2 the users of the wilderness have their own gear and about 1/2 use the services of one of the nearby canoe outfitters. Most of the outfitters are in two general areas. Along the easterns side of the wilderness the outfitters are scattered along the 60 mile Gunflint Trail (a 2 lane paved road), and on the west side, many are located in the town of Ely.
Canoeing
Although there are numerous drive-in campgrounds surrounding the wilderness, most campsites in the BWCAW are accessible only by water. As of 1999, about 75% of the BWCAW's water area was reserved for non-motorized boat travel. Most lakes and rivers are interconnected by portage trails, resulting in over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of canoe routes. Chains of lakes and portages of various lengths and difficulties can be combined to create either linear or circular routes. Some of the most popular entry points include Lake One, Trout Lake, Mudro Lake, Moose Lake, and Snowbank Lake near Ely, Saganaga Lake and Seagull Lake at the end of the Gunflint Trail, and Sawbill Lake near Tofte.
Canoe campers often use Duluth packs, designed for easy portaging and loading in canoes, to carry their gear.
Fishing
Fishing is a popular activity in the BWCAW. Game species include northern pike, walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass, yellow perch, whitefish, and lake trout, among others. A small number of lakes are stocked with brook trout as well. Popular lures include rapalas, jigs, and spoons, while live bait such as leeches are also used. Multi-sectioned or collapsible fishing rods are often used for ease in carrying while portaging.
Hiking
In addition to shorter trails to Eagle Mountain, Magnetic Rock, and Angleworm Lake, the Boundary Waters has several long-distance trails. The Border Route Trail runs east-west for over 60 miles (97 km) through the eastern BWCAW, following the ridges between the long border lakes such as Loon, South, and Rose. Eventually, a connection is planned from the eastern end of the Border Route Trail to the northern end of the Superior Hiking Trail. The Kekekabic Trail traverses the Boundary Waters from the Gunflint Trail on the east to Snowbank Lake on the west and is the only footpath through the center of the wilderness. Both the Border Route and the Kekekabic Trail are unofficially part of the longer North Country National Scenic Trail. Legislation in Congress is pending to make this designation official. There are also three longer loop trails in the Boundary Waters: the Pow Wow Trail, the Snowbank Trail, and the Sioux-Hustler Trail. These longer trails see a variable amount of maintenance; current conditions should be determined locally before use.
Description from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Your Friends With This Interest (0)
None of your friends have added this place to their Wishlist.
Members With This Interest (0)
None of your friends have added this place to their Wishlist.
Members With This Interest (0)
Your Friends That Visited Here (0)
None of your friends have visited here.
Members Who Visited (0)
None of your friends have visited here.
Members Who Visited (0)
Activities (10)
- Hiking
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Camping - Backcountry
- Skiing - Cross-Country
- Kayaking - Sea
- Kayaking - White Water
- Snowshoeing
- Snowmobiling
- Swimming
Resources Powered by Barnes & Noble and Maps.com