The U.S. Forest Service has extended the public comment period through May 15 on a proposal to trade state-owned land in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) for federal land within the Superior National Forest.
Under the proposal 30,000 acres of the 83,000 acres of state-owned school trust lands that lay within the BWCA would be traded for other federal lands that could generate money for public schools through logging, mining, or other developments.
Opposition for that land swap has come from environmentalists who believe that the Superior National Forest will shrink by 47 square miles and will result in logging and mining on land that is now managed for recreational purposes like hunting and fishing.
On their website, the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness urges its members and supporters to tell the U.S. Forest Service “don’t shrink the Superior National Forest.”
According to the Friends of the Boundary Waters Policy Director Betsy Daub, “Nearly 8,000 acres of Superior National Forest land proposed for exchange are explicitly managed to provide recreational opportunities such as hunting, fishing, camping, snowmobiling and ATV use. In addition over 6,000 acres are categorized as area of high or outstanding biological diversity.”
Other concerns have been raised by the Conservationists with Common Sense (CWCS) organization in Ely, which opposes the proposal to not exchange, but to purchase 56,295 acres of land in the wilderness. CWCS President Nancy McReady points out that under the 1964 Wilderness Act, such lands must be exchanged, not purchased.
Some opponents express concern about the sale because the Forest Service doesn’t have the funding it needs to care for the land already in its possession.
Forest Service spokesperson Kris Reichenbach of the Superior National Forest said while the trade isn’t an acre for an acre trade, it will benefit both parties.
“We will be able to better manage and protect the character of the wilderness and consolidate our ownership of forest lands while the state will be able to acquire land outside of the BWCA that they can manage for the state’s school trust.”
Should the land swap go forward, it would mark the fruition of decades of work between the parties who have been pursuing various ways to complete a trade.
Once the comment period has ended the project will go through an environmental review process.
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