MPR’s Mark Heistad interviews author David Backes about his book “Canoe Country: An Embattled Wilderness.” The two talk about the history of the Boundary Waters and the ongoing debate about the use and protections of land and water in area.

Transcript:

(00:00:00) It has a long history of having been used for what could we say nine nine Wilderness purposes. Oh sure.
(00:00:09) A lot of it's been logged over the
(00:00:11) years been heavily logged and we'll take bass would like for example, which is the main access point to all of critical Park from the central part of the Boundary Waters a huge Lake. Most people now find it hard to believe that there. Were at one time 20 Resorts there. And and now they go there and they see these beautiful stands of of Red Pine on the American side and think that it's virgin pine and don't realize that those trees were planted by The Resort owners because when Resort owners built their it had been pretty much decimated by the loggers who had been there
(00:00:50) before. Yeah and despite that I think most of us who go to The Boundary Waters regardless what other baggage we bring with that to that experience we do think of it as a
(00:01:01) wilderness. Sure, no question about it. And and in this sense. It's a recreated Wilderness.
(00:01:10) Does that in any way sort of spoil it for you to know that this is is not the way it was a hundred years ago. But something that we're making more like it was a hundred years
(00:01:22) ago. No, it doesn't spoil it for me at all. In fact, it makes it all the more interesting. I think I think it's fun to know the history of this. Area not only the all what the traditional Wilderness type history would be of the fur trade and the Indians and that we always romanticize but even the logging and the resorts and it gives I think a deeper appreciation for this place and and the struggles we've gone through to keep it to make it wild and to keep it that
(00:02:01) way. Yeah, well One of the other things that sets The Boundary Waters apart from other Wilderness areas in this country is that it is so heavily heavily used it is that just an accident of geography that it's closer to Major Metropolitan centers than other large Wilderness areas
(00:02:19) that's part of it in terms of closeness to Major Metropolitan centers. I don't know if that's as important as the fact that it's the only really George Wilderness in the United States east of the Mississippi River and so it tends to be a drawing card for people throughout the East, you know in the west we've got lots of wilderness areas that are big ones and in East we don't that's part of it and also this is the only Lakeland canoeing Wilderness of any significant size available in the United States and and that draws a lot of people from from all over not just the Eastern United States. But even from the West
(00:03:09) one of the the confrontations, I guess that's gone on for years and years and years and this is an over simplification is between the folks who live in the Quantico Superior area in close proximity The Boundary Waters and the rest of us who come And from you know points far and wide to spend our week or two in the Boundary Waters sure you seem to be trying to find some sort of an accommodation between these two competing groups and their views of the Wilderness or at least an understanding.
(00:03:39) Yeah, I've Been going to this area for many years since 1962 or 63 when I first visited and it's sad to me to see the polarization and both sides of the issue. It's very common for people who live near a Wilderness Area to fight against some of the restrictions that preservationists apply and in The Boundary Waters canoe area because of this history of They're being logging in the area. They're being resorts in the area. This fight is that much more intense because we haven't had to do the buyout of resorts in other Wilderness areas to any near the extent that we've done in Boundary Waters. and what's happened is that people in both sides of the debate have really not try to understand the legitimate concerns of the other side and we've tended to portray each other as selfish and local people see the preservationists as being greedy wealthy elitists who seek their own private playground and don't care whose It's get trampled in the process and the extremists among the preservationists see the local people is being greedy and narrow-minded and and not concerned about the national ownership of this place and they talk past each other. To me one of the unfortunate things in this whole debate is the local people really haven't had the media coverage that the preservationists have had. It's relatively easy for say Minneapolis or Milwaukee or Chicago newspaper to editorialize in favor the preservationists because there aren't any local people who are economically affected. A decision to impose more regulations on the area
(00:05:50) and that leaves it pretty much to the Ely Echo to take that
(00:05:53) point of view at least it pretty much to the iliac o or any old days the healing minor and unfortunately, the Ali echoed doesn't have that wider readership sure. It's heavy up there. But those aren't the people who they really need to reach and they find themselves locked out of the broader debate
(00:06:12) and that support least feeling as though they're like at least feeling as though they're like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, do you find any any possible Common Ground any ways to try and bring these two competing understandings of what the Boundary Waters is a little closer
(00:06:26) together. Well, I hope that my book will help do that. I I'm sure that some of the extremists on both sides of the debate will simply pick what they like from the book and attack what they don't like and it might miss them, but I'm hoping that for The majority of the people who are reasonably open-minded. The book will get them too. At least think about what the other side is saying and there are legitimate concerns. And what
(00:07:03) do you find a willingness on the part of folks on either side to this say well, I need to step back here and listen for a little while instead of talking so much. Well my
(00:07:13) fear is that there isn't that willingness among the The people who dominate the debate and either side my hope is that this book will reach those who have so far been only exposed to the misperceptions and falsehoods that are spread by the extremists on both sides.