Last July, Jean and I slowly paddled our canoe along a secluded bay west of where we had broken camp that morning. We had heard rumors of a pictograph site in this bay, and we searched the rock faces as we drifted and slowly paddled along. This bay held none of the tall cliff faces that typically hold the markings painted on by native inhabitants of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park hundreds of years ago. We had nearly given up when we finally spotted the pictographs on a low rock face just above the water. They were definitely authentic—four round spheres of dark red pigment—and we pondered their meanings. We floated soundlessly, thinking of the painter who had floated here in his or her own canoe hundreds of years ago at the very spot we now floated. We felt a deep connection with the past at that moment, for the pictograph painter, for others who had come before us, for those who have fought to save this marvelous region as a protected wilderness. Then we turned our canoe to the west and paddled into sunshine. —Kevin Proescholdt, Conservation Director | |
Forty years ago this past fall, President Jimmy Carter signed the 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act into law. Wilderness Watch's Kevin Proescholdt played a significant role in the law's passage. Unfortunately, the work to protect this storied Wilderness is far from over. The Trump administration is diligently working to move forward a mammoth copper-sulfide mine proposed just upstream of the Boundary Waters—by renewing expired mineral leases and cancelling the application of a proposed 20-year mining ban. This 1.1 million-acre national treasure is at grave risk right now. Wilderness Watch has been engaged in keeping our most visited Wilderness protected from the threat of mining, motorboats, and other threats for years. We will never give up this fight or the many other battles we are engaged in for Wilderness all over the country. With your help, we will prevail so that Wilderness can prevail. Please help us win with a year-end donation today. Thank you. For the wild,
George, Dana, Kevin, Dawn, Jeff, Clare, and Gary | |
