The Superior National Forest (SNF) seeks public input as it contemplates changes to its Forest Management Plan for the BWCAW. The current plan sets goals and guidelines for managing, protecting, and using the BWCAW.
SNF will gather input from local communities, interested parties, and the broader public regarding the management of the BWCAW until May 17, 2024. In its March 29, 2024, press release, SNF wrote, “We are considering making an amendment to update and modernize the Forest Plan direction for the BWCAW.”
“Changes to our Forest Plan can better position SNF to restore and preserve wilderness character and meet the purposes of wilderness described in the 1964 Wilderness Act and 1978 BWCAW Act,” said Tom Hall, Forest Supervisor.
According to Hall, the BWCAW’s management direction was last updated in 1993. He added, “Our implementation and monitoring over the past 30 years, as well as changes to national wilderness management policy and guidance, have highlighted several issues affecting the BWCAW’s wilderness character and visitors’ wilderness experience.”
The SNF needs to update management direction to preserve wilderness character, provide opportunities for solitude, restore naturalness, limit development and trammeling actions, and protect other features of value across the Wilderness.
All four management areas of the BWCAW are adversely affected by Increasing visitation and changing trends in utilizing public lands, particularly high-use campsites, travel routes, and previously unvisited primitive and pristine areas. Monitoring indicates social and ecological impacts, such as crowding, noise, light pollution, lack of campsite availability, littering, campsite and portage erosion, campsite expansions, water quality degradation, and other issues preventing SNF from managing to its standards.
In August 2023, a review of Towboat management in the BWCAW drew 1,300 comments. The primary issues identified related to how towboats are managed under the overall motorboat cap within the BWCAW and the impact that towboats have on wilderness character. To effectively manage commercial towboat use in the BWCAW, management direction concerning commercial towboats in the existing Forest Plan may need to be updated. In addition to commercial towboat use, there is a need to consider the context of motorized use within the BWCAW, as provided for by existing law.
Additional management topics include fisheries, outfitter and guide operations, forest fire management, visitor use management (overnight paddle and hiking quota, campsites), structures, other agency use, wilderness education plans, the reservation system, and research needs.
This ambitious and time-consuming process will be ready for implementation by April 2026. Public comments may be submitted online at www.fs.usda. gov from March 29 to May 17, 2024. Comments may be submitted by mailing to Superior National Forest, Re: BWCAW Forest Plan Amendment, 8901 Grand Ave. Place, Duluth, MN 55808
