Conclusion

 

“Being on the move, seeing what you have never seen before, not knowing where you will rest your head when night falls, receiving what comes as it comes, expecting everything and nothing: this is the allure of the canoe country.  Every stroke of the paddle or step along the trail with a canoe on your shoulders or a pack on your back literally enlarges your world.” Gruchow 1997    

 

 

Throughout our history of land use we have competed with the biotic community and degraded the forests of northern Minnesota.  The forests used to be signified by tribal influence and natural fire regimes supporting large mammals and birds and mature white and jack pine stands.  Shortly after Europeans arrived looking for timber resources, the area was settled by pioneer lumberjacks and rapidly industrialized until most choice lumber was taken.  The forests became a mix of spruce, fir, cedar, birch, and aspen and animals like eagle, osprey, lynx, wolverine, elk, caribou dependent on mature growth became rare.  As settlement proceeded large predators were killed to protect towns and white-tailed deer became common and took advantage of degraded forests causing more damage.  Intensive grazing decreased edible herbs and tree seedlings resulting in a monoculture which supports fewer songbirds and smaller mammals.  As the conservation movement took hold the lands were set aside and logging was reduced to promote sustainable timber harvesting and allow recreation.  As values changed further the land became a wilderness and development and logging were prohibited to preserve the land for recreation.  However, the land at this time was already degraded and the composition changed with few of the original inhabitants and a great abundance of deer instead. 
           

It is not enough to just set land aside and it is irrational to ignore the impact of European settlement over the last century before the land was preserved.  It is now time to embrace active forest management to restore our forests’ quality and promote sustainable use.  Restoration will rely heavily on reintroducing the fire regime and avoiding fire suppression.  The impact of fire will support new growth of white and jack pine populations. In addition, selective logging may help to reduce fuel loads and blow down damage while controlling the new dominant populations of aspen, for example.  The deer population must be controlled both by hunting and by re-introduction of large predators such as wolves and lynx to the area.  Further regulation of recreational activities may be necessary including a limit to visitor numbers, advanced registration of permits for access, and better planning to evenly distribute visitors to limit the impact of recreation.  It will also be important to promote buffer zones around the BWCAW and corridors to other patches of habitat to enhance biodiversity, resilience, and overall community health.

The last century has provided us many valuable lessons about the impacts of our actions on the environment and helps us to understand the complex and delicate relationship between land use and biotic community.  Hopefully the information compiled will be used wisely to guide future management decisions.  If we take initiative we can diminish our impacts and restore the ecosystem as we found it.  We have moved though many phases of land use which have conflicted with the biotic community and stages of values which led us to simply set aside and ignore the degradation of our environment, it is now time to move forward and restore the quality of our forests and embrace land use practices which promote forest conservation and sustainable use.

 

 

 

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