Boundary Water Canoe Area, in Northern Minnesota, Threatened
7/1/96
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Date: Mon, 01 Jul 1996 20:19:09 -0400
From: Roger Featherstone
Reply-To: rfeather@clark.net
Sender: owner-actgreen@envirolink.org
Subject: ACTION ALERT -- Boundry Waters In Trouble
To: actgreen@envirolink.org
The following Action Alert is brought to you by the Sierra Club. Your help
will make sure that the Boundry Waters remain free and wild.
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ACTION ALERT
Oberstar, Grams Push Bills for more Motors, Exclusive
Local Control of BWCAW and Voyageurs! Vento Introduces
Pro-Wilderness Bill!
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS JULY 11 AND 18!
In the most serious threat to Minnesota wilderness in two decades or more,
Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and U.S. Senator Rod Grams (R-MN) have
introduced legislation in the Congress that would dramatically increase
motorized use of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) Wilderness, and
shift management of both the BWCAW and Voyageurs National Park from the
U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service t o local pro-motor
politicians. We need your help to protect these precious areas. Please
respond today!
On April 23rd, Congressman Oberstar introduced his bills attacking both the
BWCA Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park. Oberstar's Boundary Waters
bill, HR 3297, opens parts of the mi llion-acre BWCA Wilderness to trucks
and jeeps, and dramatically expands motorboat use. His bill would also e
stablish an "Intergovernmental Council," dominated by pro-motor local
politicians who could dictate management of this national area to the
federal government ("The Secretary [of Agriculture] shall revise the
management plan in a manner based on..." the Council's recommendations.)
Oberstar's Voyageurs Park bill, HR 3298, would establish the s ame type of
county-supremacy, local-control Intergovernmental Council to dictate to the
National Park Service how this national treasure should be managed.
On May 8th, Senator Grams announced his BWCAW bill, S 1738, similar to
(although in some aspects even worse than) Oberstar's bill. Grams and
Oberstar are seeking Congressional hearings on their bills in Washington as
early as June, in hopes of ramming their bills through Congress before the
election. Gra ms Voyageurs legislation is S 1805, introduced May 23, 1996.
However Congressman Bruce Vento (D-MN), long-time wilderness champion, has
intro duced pro-wilderness legislation around which wilderness and park
supporters can rally. His bill, HR 3470 announced on May 6th and formally
introduced the following week, would close parts of three lakes to mot
orboats in the BWCAW (Basswood, Loon, and Lac La Croix), add some 14,000
acres to the wilderness, and designate the 74,000-acre Kabetogama Peninsula
in Voyageurs Park as wilderness. Minnesota's other U.S. Senator, Paul
Wellstone (D-MN) meanwhile announced the day after the Vento bill's
unveiling that he will bring in federal mediators to try to get various
interests talking to each other. Wellstone opposes all the bills so far
introduced or anno unced.
These latest developments continue the recent turbulence over the two
areas. In 1995, local motor advocates and some of their politicians mounted
an effort to strip Voyageurs of National Park statu s, and to radically
open both the BWCA Wilderness and Voyageurs to snowmobile, motorboat, and
truck traffic. These same motor forces demanded local control over these
two national areas now managed by the U.S. Forest Service and National Park
Service, respectively.
U.S. Senator Rod Grams (R-MN) has consistently supported this type of
exclusiona ry and pro-motor local control and motorized use for these two
national treasures. He called a congressional field hearing in August 1995
for International Falls, MN, to hear these proposals, and opposed calls
from Congressman Vento and Senator Wellstone to convene a second hearing in
St. Paul to hear from a broader spectrum of citizens. The Octo ber St. Paul
hearing produced a huge outpouring of this support for the BWCAW and
Voyageurs (1100 of the 1200 attende es) and a superb defense of wilderness
by Congressman Vento, but Grams and Oberstar remain adamant about pus hing
their anti-wilderness legislation.
Oberstar and Grams have completely ignored the majority opinion of most
Minnesot ans and even most northeastern Minnesotans. Two state-wide polls
from the fall of 1995 showed overwhelming supp ort for wilderness both
state-wide and in northeastern Minnesota. The St. Cloud State University
poll, for example, showed that 82% of all Minnesotans, and 73% of all
northeastern Minnesotans, want wilderness protections for the BWC A
Wilderness and Voyageurs maintained at current levels or strengthened, and
only 13% and 26%, respectively , want to see the protections weakened.
Senator Grams, as vice-chair of the key Senate subcommittee, will play a
powerfu l role in the Republican Congress in pushing his legislation to
degrade the BWCA Wilderness with new motorboat and tr uck use, and with
seizing control of all management decisions for both the Boundary Waters
and Voyageurs by the pr o-motor local politicians. This issue is being
heavily politicized by the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) to
damage Senator Wellstone in 1996 when he is running for re-election. In
May the NRSC spent a r eported $1 million on TV ads in northern Minnesota
attacking Wellstone for not sponsoring the Grams and Oberstar BWCAW bills.
Wellstone has a 100% rating from the League of Conservation Voters but is
still being lobbied f or more motors by some of his anti-wilderness
supporters in northeastern Minnesota. In February, the Republica n Party of
Minnesota began airing a radio ad in northern Minnesota attacking Wellstone
for not dismantling Voyageurs National Park.
We need your help to convince these politicians to stop pandering to a loud
but small group of local motor proponents, and to listen to the strong
majority of Minnesotans and citizens acr oss the country who believe it is
critical to preserve and protect wilderness. Wilderness protection is a
nonpart isan issue that has support from citizens of all political
persuasions.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Contact Senators Paul Wellstone and Rod Grams, and tell them to leave the
BWCA Wilderness and Voyageurs alone. Tell them that, if anything,
protections should be increased because thes e national treasures deserve
the highest level of protection possible. Ask them to sponsor the Vento
bill in the Senate, HR 3470. Please contact the Senators again even if
you've done so in the past on this same issue.
Senator Paul Wellstone Senator Rod Grams
717 Hart Senate Bldg. 261 Dirksen Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5641 (phone) 202-224-3244 (phone)
202-224-8438 (FAX) 202-228-0956 (FAX)
Write to your Senators, if different from the above, and Representative,
asking them to please protect the BWCAW and Voyageurs! Ask them to sponsor
or co-sponsor Rep. Vento's bill, HR 3470. Rem ind them that these are
national interest lands, owned and loved by Americans all over the country.
Rep. _____ Sen. _____
House of Representatives U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510
General phone numbers for all Members of Congress: 202-224-3121 or
800-972- 3524. June 1996