Transcripts

ALAN SEARLE: While a large part of Ely was waiting in the heat at the community center last night, the senators were in nearby City Hall, being briefed on the differing philosophies held about BWCA management. After a short BWCA history given by the US Forest Service, presentations were made by the Boundary Waters Conservation Alliance and the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Snowmobiles and motorboats were the main topic, with each side claiming that it can compromise no more on the issue of motorboats, even though the gap is still very wide between them.

Speaking for the Boundary Waters Conservation Alliance, Lee Houghtaling said that motors have been proven to be compatible with the BWCA environment. Dick Flynt of the Sierra Club pointed out that 95% of Minnesota's water is open to motors and suggested that the BWCA be set aside for paddle-only travel. Because both sides seemed so well-informed, Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio suggested there is some merit to further effort being made by those involved to reach a compromise on their own.

HOWARD METZENBAUM: The parties can do this, they can compromise this issue far better than the members of Congress. We will meet our responsibility. And we will meet the issue. And we will make a determination if there be no alternative. But I am positive that our decision won't be nearly as good as it would be if the parties themselves resolved it.

ALAN SEARLE: Senator Anderson's office expects the Anderson-Humphrey BWCA bill to pass out of the Senate by September 1. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hopes to have the bill on its agenda before August 1. The Senators made a tour of the BWCA with over a dozen press teams in tow.

A motorboat caravan was provided by a number of local canoe outfitters, taking the group to five of the most heavily-traveled lakes in the Boundary Waters, Moose, Fall, Basswood, Shagawa, and Seagull lakes. While most of the local citizens on the tour favor motorboat use, some did not. Bud Heinselman of the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.

BUD HEINSELMAN: I think we will not have an adequate chance to be heard here. Although we certainly, each of us individually who are on the tour will have a very adequate chance to be heard. I think our position will not be thoroughly aired here. However, we have other-- we do go to Washington and work down in Washington. And our position is well-known nationally. And I understand the need for the local citizens to have their opportunity to talk to the senators. And we just felt that it wasn't wise, given the climate, to ask a lot of our people to come here tonight.

ALAN SEARLE: Heinselman added there was a potential for confrontation, which would serve no one's purpose. Dick Flynt of the Sierra Club says he wished the group could have spent a day in small parties, traveling by paddle canoe. He offered to act as a guide, should any of the senators like to return. It was the first time since 1964 that a congressional contingent toured the Boundary Waters Canoe area.

The scene, however, will now shift back to Washington, where the Anderson-Humphrey bill is expected to pass through committee and through the Senate. The final confrontation should come when that bill joins the Burton-Vento bill in House-Senate conference committee later this fall. In the Boundary Waters Canoe area, this is Alan Searle.