June 6, 2006 - There's a piece of paradise in northeastern Minnesota. It's called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA). Admirers credit the book "The Singing Wilderness," published in 1956, as part of the inspiration for creating the wilderness area; and they credit author Sigurd Olson for putting into words the reasons humans need wilderness. However, his views inflamed critics who feared Olson and other wilderness advocates worried more about habitat than humans.
July 17, 1998 - MPR’s Leif Enger takes a look at the BWCA twenty years after legislation to protect it, and the divide in viewpoints on the land that have existed throughout the 20th century. Segment includes various interviews and commentary.
July 17, 1998 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from Ely, Minnesota. Program highlights the northern Minnesota town and the BWCA, twenty years after major Congressional legislation in 1978…a controversial Act that banned mining, logging and most motor use. In this first hour of program, MPR’s Rachel Reabe interviews Mark Van Every and Barb Soderberg, representatives from the National Forest Service; and canoe outfitters John Waters and Gary Gotchnik about the various aspects of the BWCA.
October 29, 1990 - On this Mainstreet Radio program, MPR’s Leif Enger reports on the attempts for a truce on the border of the BWCA since the 1978 Boundary Waters Wilderness Act.