The Superior National Forest covers northern and northeastern Minnesota, and was first founded as a Timber Preserve in 1909 before being granted National Forest status. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area began as the Superior Roadless Area in 1926 following the suggestion of the Forest Service recreational engineer and Wilderness advocate, Arthur Carhart. Carhart recommended that the lakes country in the far northern portion of the Forest abutting the Canadian Quetico Provincial Park be closed off from new road construction and preserved as a prime recreational area. The BWCA was included in the Wilderness Act of 1964, but was not granted full Wilderness status until 1978, when the current regulations were put in place.
The Boundary Waters were granted their name due to the glacially-carved lakes which predominate mostly in central Ontario, extending as far south as the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. The vegetation of the border lakes region is dominated by woodlands, with bogs and marshes scattered throughout the forest. Four principle types of current forest cover tell a story of changes in response to both natural and human disturbances.
The three forest cover types of the North Woods include aspen-birch-spruce-fir, jack pine, and red pine-white pine forest. Tree diseases from introduced European seedlings and over-logging both played roles in reducing the numbers of red and white pine, while increasing the pre-dominance of the early successional tree species such as quaking aspen and white birch. Historically, fire and heavy wind storms have been responsible for restarting the process of forest succession, beginning with open, sunny areas that offer young tree buds and fruit-bearing shrubs that attract large mammals, such as the white-tailed deer and black bear. Aspen, birch, and spruce all grow quickly in these open areas, while jack pine—requiring high temperatures to disperse its seeds—regenerates quickly after forest fire. The larger pines regenerate slower and are usually associated with “climax” forests, with doubts about the environmental adaptability of red pine recently questioned due to its lack of genetic variation, and with native white pine seeds suffering the effects of white-pine blister rust introduced through imported European seedlings.
The forest cover of the Boundary Waters plays an important role in the Wilderness Experience of the recreational users of this, America’s most-visited National Wilderness Area. Visitors who come north expecting to see stands of hundred foot pines are at times left wondering over human impacts when they are greeted by thick stands of aspen, birch, and spruce, as well as Non-Native Invasive Plants surrounding their lake-point campsite.
As of now the invasive herbaceous and woody shrubs and plants that the SCA Native Plant Corps crews will be focusing on this season of 2010 have yet to stake a firm foothold in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The wholly possible reality of every campsite covered in Canada thistle and spotted knapweed, and each marsh filled with purple loostrife, has not yet enveloped the Boundary Waters, but the threat looms to the south. The SCA Native Plant Corps teams working in the Superior have a unique opportunity to play an important role in containing and mitigating the spread of these Non-Native Invasive Plants in order to allow the natural forest cover of the Boundary Waters to continue to function without the interference of aggressive plant species accidently introduced by humans.