In August 2025, Wilderness Watch submitted a formal objection to the Forest Service (FS) over its massive manipulation project that would set fire to as many as 84,000 acres of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Minnesota. The misguided Fernberg Corridor Landscape Management Project has no place in Wilderness and would violate the mandate of the Wilderness Act to preserve the area’s wilderness character. The project’s use of helicopters and chainsaws also violates the letter and spirit of the law.
The 1.1-million-acre BWCAW stretches for almost 150 miles along the Canadian border and is one of the most visited Wildernesses.
Wilderness Watch supports restoring fire to its natural role in the BWCAW, and the FS has promised since the 1980s to allow lightning-caused fires to shape the Wilderness. But, the agency has, with very few exceptions, continued to put out nearly all natural wilderness fires over the past 40 years. And while the agency claims that one of the project’s purposes is to allow natural fires to burn in the BWCAW, the project’s final environmental assessment omits any analysis about whether, when, or how the agency will allow natural fires to burn.
From a wilderness perspective, manager-ignited fires are a prime example of humans imposing their will on Wilderness to try to create desired conditions rather than allowing nature to shape Wilderness. Manager-ignited fires can have very different effects on a wilderness ecosystem compared with natural, lightning-caused fires. The ignition location and forest types that managers burn are often different, and the fire type can be very different, too.
Instead of planning to burn tens of thousands of acres in the BWCAW, the FS should finally allow natural lightning-caused fires to play their role in the Wilderness. Our objection calls for the agency to withdraw its Draft Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact and prepare a full environmental impact statement.
Photo: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness by Brian Hoffman via Flickr
