The predominant land use currently is recreation and the BWCAW averages 12,000 visitors each day during summer with over 200,000 each year (“BWCAW”). Visitors register for a permit to use the land and often do a combination of canoeing and camping and on average stay for one night up to a month. There may be no more than 9 people traveling together in the wilderness and they may stay no more than 14 consecutive nights at one camp (“BWCAW”). Although visitor numbers are restricted, parties may still encounter each other during their trips and not only does this diminish the quality of the wilderness experience it also indicates that some areas of the reserve are being more heavily used than others. Lewis et al. (1996) suggest that survey data of visitor encounters may help managers of the BWCAW to identify areas of heavy use and plan accordingly to lessen the impacts of increased visitation. To further reduce the impact of visitors there are strict guidelines prohibiting cans and glass, requiring that only official portage trails and campsites can be used, and insisting that anything brought in must also be taken back out, including garbage, only dead wood on the forest floor may be used for fire, and no motors are allowed (“BWCAW”).
Despite efforts to protect the wilderness, the shear numbers of people using the land have continued to alter the biotic community. Today the common animals include loon, eagles, gulls, great blue herons, white-tailed deer, black bear, beaver, and fox. Less common are timberwolves, moose, lynx, fishers, mink, muskrat, otter, marten, weasel, and coyote (Beymer 1979). The forest has changed from even aged stands of pine dependent on fire to mixed-aged forests of spruce, fir, birch, cedar, and aspen dependent on canopy openings caused by wind, disease, and insect disturbance regimes (Frelich and Reich 1995). In the Lake States there are 19.8 million ha of forest left of the 32.7 million ha before settlement and of this only 5-8% is old growth. Only 1% of primary, unlogged forest remains from before European settlement and 40% of this is in the BWCAW which contains the largest remaining block of unlogged forest (Frelich 1995).
The management of the BWCAW has also continued to damage the health of the biotic community by resisting the advice of Bud Heinselman to actively restore the forest and its inhabitants. The most detrimental practice has been fire suppression. Fire suppression since European settlement has resulted in drastic changes in the spatial structure of the Northwoods, which causes disturbances for species adapted to specific habitats (Baker 1993). Specifically, fire suppression and settlement have altered the spatial patterns of the BWCAW, altered succession patterns, and decreased biodiversity and species richness in the area (Baker 1992, Frelich and Reich 1995). Improvement of the environment to return to pre-settlement conditions will require efforts at a combination of scales; landscape scale efforts are needed to reinstate natural fire regimes and restore spatial distribution of vegetation while species scale efforts must be included to manage specific populations of target species such as white-tailed deer and timberwolves (Baker 1989). It is possible to restore the pre-settlement landscape structure within 50-75 years if the original fire regime is reintroduced (Baker 1994). The most helpful would be large fires formed by uninhibited natural fires and Baker (1994) indicates that small, prescribed burning would not be successful but would further alter the environment.
Data of vegetation types from Pre-settlement (left) and Current (right) surveys. The pre-settlement vegetation is dominated by Jack Pine (gold), White and Red Pine(fuscia), and Aspen/Birch (purple & teal, with teal denoting strong conifer presence also). The current data shows almost entirely Aspen/Birch (purple), with much reduced pine populations (pink), and includes more accurate recording of water (teal). Overall this comparison shows that the BWCAW has shifted from predominantly conifer to mixed hardwood due to land use and altered fire regime.
Home Introduction Pre-settlement Mid-1900s Conclusion