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County board says
no to wilderness expansion
By Rhonda Silence
After only brief discussion about a proposal to
expand the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
(BWCAW), the Cook County Commissioners adopted a
resolution opposing additional BWCAW land in
Cook County.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson distributed
information from the Friends of the Boundary
Waters, an environmental organization which
recently completed an inventory of Forest
Service land. The inventory, completed by
approximately 50 volunteers, was funded by the
Friends organization, as well as the Sierra
Club, the Northeastern Minnesotans for
Wilderness, the Izaak Walton League, the
Superior Wilderness Action Network (SWAN), and
the Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation. The
Friends group identified 90,000 acres of land
which it believes should be designated as
wilderness.
The Friends of the Boundary Waters website
divides the land in question into units that
meet the Wilderness Act's criteria to be
designated as wilderness.
In Cook County, those units include Homer Lake
in Lutsen; Willow Creek, near Crescent Lake in
Lutsen; the Vegetable chain lakes (Cucumber,
Bean, Squash, Carrot, etc); Hog Lake, 14 miles
NW of Tofte; the Magnetic Rock Trail area; land
around the Old Paulson Mine; the Lima Mountain
area, including Lima, Sled, Fiddle &
Dislocation Lakes and more.
Martinson said he had shared the proposal with
Supervisors at the Tofte and Schroeder town
meetings and had heard concern about the
expansion. His colleagues on the county board
appeared to share that concern.
Commissioners asked Land Commissioner Ted
Mershon for his opinion. Mershon suggested that
the commissioners attend an upcoming meeting
with the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) and the US Forest Service at the
Forest Service office in Duluth at 10 a.m. on
July 21. Mershon said that commissioners would
need to talk about what they perceived as impact
of wilderness expansion. "It's important to
take a look at these areas," he said.
"Some of them I've snowmobiled into and
there wasn't much use. Why does it need
wilderness designation?"
Martinson asked, "So, if a commissioner is
there-should they take a stand against expansion
of the Boundary Waters?"
Commissioners Walt Mianowski and Gene Erickson
replied affirmatively. Erickson moved to adopt a
resolution opposing additional BWCAW land in
Cook County. Mianowski seconded and the motion
carried unanimously.
Commissioner Fenwick, County Attorney Bill
Hennessy and Mershon agreed to work on the
language of the resolution, which will be
delivered to the U.S. Forest Service.
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