Superior National Forest - legislative history

The history of the Superior National Forest (SNF) has been long and convoluted. In 1902 the U.S. Land Office withdrew 500,000 acres of the future BWCAW from settlement. After more land was conserved in reserves, like the Burntside Forest Reserve, the SNF was created in 1909 by proclamation (proclamation No. 848) of President Theodore Roosevelt. The SNF boundaries applied to previously withdrawn public domain lands. In the same year, Minnesota established the Superior Game Refuge, a 1.2 million acre area that overlaps with the national forest.

Established within the SNF by U.S. Agriculture Secretary W.M. Jardine in 1926 a roadless wilderness area (640,000 acres) was defined. The roadless area was proposed in order to “retain as much as possible of the land which has recreational opportunities of this nature as a wilderness” (www.friends-bwca.org/aboutus/timeline.html). In 1930, congress passed the Shipstead-Newton-Nolan Act intended to protect water levels and lakeshores by prohibiting dams and logging within 400 feet of waterways within the SNF. During these years, the size of SNF continued to expand through boundary changes and federal purchases that pushed its size to over 2 million acres. In 1938 the Forest Service set out the Superior Roadless Primitive Area with boundaries similar to the future BWCAW. A decade later, Congress passed the Thye-Blatnik Act which authorized the use of federal funds to buy resorts and private lands in the wilderness and convert them into wilderness areas. Another decade passed before the Forest Service changed the name of the Superior Roadless Area to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

The next major piece of legislation affecting the SNF was the 1964 Wilderness Act. This act was instrumental in establishing primitive, wilderness areas throughout the U.S.

"For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as "wilderness areas", and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness" (http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=legisAct#2).

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area was then designated a wilderness area to which this definition applied:

"A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this chapter an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions" (http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=legisAct#2).

The designation as wilderness now meant that certain uses were prohibited in order to retain the ‘primeval’ character of the land. These restrictions were such that no commercial enterprise and no permanent road could be constructed or maintained throughout the wilderness areas. Additional stipulations were provided. Except in emergencies, “no temporary road, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft and no other form of mechanical transport” is allowed (http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=legisAct#2 ). These rules have served their purpose so that the BWCAW today has retained its primitive characteristics. Despite being inside the SNF, the Forest Service also regulates the BWCAW which has additional regulations and greater restrictions on what actions are allowable within it.

In 1978 the BWCA Wilderness Act which put further restrictions on the BWCAW. The act eliminated logging, restricted mining operations and restricted motor boat access. The act also increased the size of the wilderness by another 50,000 acres to just under 1,100,000 acres (www.friends-bwca.org/aboutus/timeline.html). The act further provided for the protection and management of the natural environment including fish, wildlife, water quality by minimizing environmental impacts from mineral developments and preventing further road or commercial development (http://www.mnforsustain.org/bwca_enabling_act_1978.htm ). This act furthered the attempt to approach the greatest wilderness conditions possible for the BWCAW while still leaving it accessible to the public.

The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resource Planning Act (RPA) of 1974 required a forest plan for each of the national forests in the system. The National Forest Management Act, which had passed in 1976, required a revision of the Forest Plan every 10 to 15 years. Therefore, in 1986 a forest plan was created for the SNF and again in 2004. Both of these plans will be explored and compared later.

Yet one of the most important legislative pieces concerning the management of the SNF was passed little more than a decade ago. In 1995, the Minnesota Legislature passed the Sustainable Forest Resources Act (SFRA) to ensure the “sustainable management, use and protection of the state’s forest resources to achieve the state’s economic, environmental and social goals” (SNF Forest Plan 2004). The landmark piece of legislation initiated sustainable forest management practices in Minnesota. The act used the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainability and decreed the implementation of sustainable forestry as defined here:

"Sustainable forestry is a proactive form of management that provides for the multiple uses of the forests by balancing a diversity of both present and future needs. It is a process of informed decision-making that takes into account resource needs, landowner objectives, site capabilities, existing regulations, economics, and the best information available at any given time" (http://www.state.mn.us/ebranch/frc/SFRA/SFRA.htm ).

The act encouraged the conditions that support active management such as education, collaboration, research, monitoring and information management. The Minnesota Forest Resources Council (MFRC) was also established as a result of the SFRA. The council’s role is advisory in that it helps develop and implement initiatives needed for active management. The council also advises various Minnesotan governmental bodies on sustainable forest management policies and practices. Lastly, the council also worked with the SNF to develop objectives for landscape ecosystems and site-level guidelines within the forest (SNF Forest Plan 2004).