South Fowl Lake: The Back Story
The U.S. Forest Service is about to choose an alternative for a snowmobile trail route that would desecrate one of the most strikingly beautiful spots in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). The South Fowl Lake Snowmobile Access Project has been in the works since 2004 and the alternative favored in the beginning would have had little effect on the BWCAW. But local pressure from county commissioners and residents may be pushing the Forest Service and the State of Minnesota to another alternative: the North Route. This alternative would use bulldozers and log skidders to build the trail across the middle of the spectacular Royal Lake cliff, directly above a BWCAW route and in the middle of one of the most botanically significant areas of the state. How has this come about?
In the winter of 2002-03, Forest Service employees from the Gunflint District of the Superior National Forest discovered an illegal winter motor route through the BWCAW. The trail started outside the Wilderness on McFarland Lake, crossed the Arrowhead Trail (a county road), then crossed the Border Route Hiking Trail before entering the BWCAW near Royal Lake. Royal Lake was crisscrossed with multiple trails on and beside it. The trail then followed the Royal River, over Royal Lake, until it came to a rapids, where it was chain sawed in along the river to North and South Fowl Lakes on the international border, major winter fishing destinations.
Scant snow cover that year made it possible for ATVs, as well as snowmobiles, to use the trail heavily. An old growth cedar swamp next to Royal Lake had deep rutting and it was obvious that ATVs had been deliberately "mucking." Deep holes had been churned into the sphagnum and trees damaged. Out on Royal Lake and the Royal River, the machines had mown down the aquatic vegetation on the marshy waters. On main routes vegetation was so impacted that these trails were apparent throughout the following summer. The damage done by ATVs on the trail next to Royal Lake was so bad that snowmobilers wanting to use the trail had to turn back because it was too rough.
The trail was reported to supervisors on the Gunflint District. It was clearly illegal: the 1978 BWCAW Act had designated all of Royal Lake and the Royal River, and land 400 feet from their high water mark, as federally designated wilderness protected within the National Wilderness Preservation System. Plans were made to enforce the no-motor regulation and close the illegal user-developed trail. Then came the calls from county commissioners and irate local residents who argued that they had used the trail for decades. It was discovered that some Forest Service employees had used the trail, both on and off duty. In the face of this revelation and continued pro-trail pressure, plans changed. The Forest Service decided to slow down and look more closely at the issue.
After some reflection, the Gunflint District decided that a new trail would be built for the locals to motor from McFarland Lake to South Fowl Lake, and the South Fowl Lake Access Project was born. This, although the Forest Service, in a 1991 letter to county commissioners that was printed in the local newspaper, declared that "there is adequate access into the Fowl Lakes," when saying "no" to the requests of local residents for a motorized trail through Royal River and Royal Lake. The Forest Service explained that the area in question was within the BWCAW where no motorized use was permitted. Afterward, motor use of the trail continued even though the decision was publicized within the county.The decision to construct a new trail may have seemed an easy alternative to bucking a long-established use. But illegal motor use was allowed to become well established thanks to the Forest Service's quarter century of failure to implement the 1978 BWCAW Act by enforcing motor prohibitions; giving the agency a way to cover its mistake doesn't seem a good justification for such a costly project. The decision also appears to reward a group of violators who knew they were breaking the law but thought wilderness restrictions shouldn't apply to them in their own backyard.
Once the decision to build a new trail was made, alternative routes needed to be identified. Royal Lake is the easternmost lake in the BWCAW, so on a map it may appear that a trail could be constructed just east of the wilderness boundary. But a giant cliff rises adjacent to Royal Lake, making such a trail impossible without building retaining walls through (or long, visible bridges over) the piles of fallen rocks below the cliffs.
Royal Lake and the cliffs above it are among the most unique places in the state. Botanists have singled this area out for its rare plants and undisturbed habitat. The Forest Service's management plan identifies the Royal River, along with only three other places in the wilderness, as a Special Interest Area (Superior National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, 7/04; p 3-57). No new trails, campsites, or development are to be established in these areas.
The November 2005 Environmental Assessment (EA) for the South Fowl Lake Snowmobile Access Project identifies five alternatives:
- No action. McFarland Lake property owners would have to trailer their snowmobiles to trails (as most Minnesotans have to do). Access to South Fowl would continue via the South Fowl Lake Road, an unimproved DNR Forestry road that is plowed only when needed by loggers.
- North Route. The trail would be routed across the middle of the Royal Lake cliff. This is the route the illegal trail users and the Cook County commissioners advocate. Great enthusiasm has been shown by vocal locals for this alternative, and local Forest Service officials have been personally attacked for the token non-motorized designation in the recently revised plan for the Superior National Forest. Bumper stickers criticizing the District Ranger by name are seen in Grand Marais, where his office is. Credible sources say the Forest Service is very likely to select this alternative, unless conservationists speak out against it. The "Proposed Route" is a feint to lull conservationists into complacency.
- South Route. This alternative is constructing a new trail through undisturbed forest with old growth cedar groves, wetlands and exposed bedrock areas and connects to an existing logging road that eventually links to the South Fowl Road which goes most of the way to the lake. A user-created trail would be upgraded for the final link. The MN DNR does not support this alternative and it's unlikely to be selected.
- Proposed Route. This alternative route follows the Arrowhead Trail and would be a widening of the road corridor (this gravel road does not have shoulders or ditches). It would go from McFarland Lake to the current legal access to South Fowl Lake. This alternative would allow the county to close the road to snowmobiling for safety reasons. Enforcement of the closure of the road to snowmobiling is uncertain. This was the preferred route in the first public notice of the project. Although it is still called the preferred route, the Forest Service is leaning toward selecting the Northern Route (alternative 2 above). The Sierra Club and most allied conservation groups are supporting this alternative.
- Short Route. This alternative would improve the parking area at the intersection of the Arrowhead Trail and the South Fowl Road and improve the unnamed trail down the steep hill to South Fowl Lake. The general public and neighborhood residents would trailer their snowmobiles to this parking lot and then ride to South Fowl on the South Fowl Road. This alternative is least costly and has the least environmental impact. Similar to the No Action alternative, except for the improvements to the parking area.
Citizens may comment during the next 30 days on the project; the deadline is 12/16/05. Please act now and tell the Forest Service and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (which manages some of the land impacted) that the Northern Route is unacceptable and that the Proposed Route should be selected.
There are several issues the Forest Service should consider carefully before making the choice:
- Constructing a motorized trail right next to and above a heavily used wilderness route would degrade wilderness values the Forest Service is mandated to protect. Although the trail would be located on a narrow table across the cliff, it would still be extremely steep and erosion from construction and use would impact Royal Lake. To use bulldozers and log skidders to construct a motorized trail in this undisturbed, never-logged forest would cause the trail corridor to be visible from the lake and river below. Illegal ATV use, already a major problem in the McFarland Lake area, would be inevitable on this new trail. Noise from both snowmobiles and ATVs would echo into the wilderness for miles. The new trail corridor would open up and cause edge effect in an area known for its biological significance.
- Being on Royal Lake is to experience one of the most beautiful places around. The wetlands and their native plants and redwing blackbirds, the forest rising dramatically to the Royal Lake cliff, where eagles soar: the whole scene is one of wildness and a healthy functioning ecosystem. To bulldoze a trail across that incredible cliff would be like vandalizing a great work of art or burning a rare old manuscript — a treasure gone forever.
- The job of the Forest Service, mandated by law, is to protect places like Royal Lake for all people to enjoy — as wilderness.
Please see the section How to Send Comments and draft and send your comments today!