Boundary Waters
Raising awareness. It seems like every day, someone embarks on a new project to ‘raise awareness’ about a particular issue, cause, disease, endangered species or threatened public land. But what separates the projects that cut through the noise and the ones that get drowned out in the static of issues competing for our attention?
For our third Endangered Spaces episode, we travel to Northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to follow Dave and Amy Freeman on “Paddle to D.C.” and “A Year in the Wilderness,” two adventures that had a real impact in advocating for the protection of the place they love most.
To learn more, visit SavetheBoundaryWaters.org,
get a copy of Dave and Amy’s brand new book, A Year in the Wilderness,
watch Duct Tape Then Beer’s film, “Bear Witness” about the Freeman’s year in the Boundary Waters
and watch Nate Ptacek’s film on “Paddle to D.C.”
Music: If Walls Could Talk by Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto • Wild Wind by John Berry • When It All Falls Down by Publish the Quest • The Architect by Cleod9 • Somnolence by Kai Engel • Holy Water by Denise Casey • Original Scores by Amy Stolzenbach
Tracks provided by Free Music Archive and with permission from the artists.
Pingback: The Dirtbag Diaries — Endangered Spaces | Pack Light
Pingback: Postscript: Early fall 2017 | Jim Ryan
I was born in Ely and still live here now. I love the BW and am absolutely on board with protecting it. I write politicians constantly about the topic. I do wish that there was some focus on protecting the whole of the BWCAW and not just the water. I fully support and agree with protecting the water resources. But a lot of the battle is with locals who think we can mine and not harm the water. What they mostly do not realize is that the things even they appreciate most of the BWCAW is at risk even if the water is not harmed. The silence, the solitude, the sounds…those matter too. They matter a lot. Adding industry to the border of the wilderness puts those at risk as well, not just the water. It will increase light levels, dust, and sound pollution.
Our great silent spaces deserve protection on that merit alone. Every acre we give up reduces the silence in the world. We cannot afford to keep doing so, the silence is vital to our well being and this is the attribute people travel to the BW to experience most. To leave their noisy, rat race lives behind for a while. If the water is damaged, the BWCA ceases to exist as we know it. But if the areas that are truly quiet start to disappear, people will likewise stop coming to this area and will focus their trips in area that do not have that invasion.
Virginia, MN is full of mining. Take a look at at the city from above on Google maps. No one visits Virginia for a vacation and it has nothing to do with water quality. Mining is noisy, smelly, and ugly as well as a danger to the water and I think we are missing a chance to reach people based on that fact as well.