Old Eminent Domain Issues Breeds a New Batch of Resentment

Ely distances itself from a rage against visitors:

" succession of federal preservation laws and policies in the early to mid-1900s called for the government to buy up more and more of the land that now makes up the BWCA, using eminent domain if necessary.

Many locals were bitter over being forced to sell their cabins or resorts, and resentment was compounded by the BWCAW Act of 1978, which imposed most of the present restrictions on motorized travel and the permit system to limit visitors.

People in town say that backward thinking clearly fed into the senseless rampage and, if not confronted, could damage the town’s image and economy, which now rests almost solely on BWCA visitors."

Yup we've got nuts. I remember when all the strict laws went into effect and the BWCA first came to my attention....it was talked about in the same manner as one talks about the reservations up here---"no white-mans land"---there was a lot of resentment that it was taken in the manner it which it was.

My parents knew people who were given "top dollar" for their land up there....the tern top-dollar was relevant to them....it basically meant whatever the government was willing to give and not what they would have gotten for it on the open market.

And I think that is truly what the biggest bitter-pill was for these people---they didn't get the full value for the land. If the government had paid them what the true value of the land was worth then most of them could have moved on to other northern lands and started over. Some of the land up there had already been in families for two generations or more, but the making of the BWCA forced these families out.

Now many of these families and MN residents were told that the area was being made for the good of the all, and that they would still be able to use the area as they had only now it belonged to the Federal government the way that Yellowstone & the Grand Canyon did. When the 1978 regulations were past the people felt like the government had bent them over and rammed them a good one!

The act also stopped the lumber industry from going into the area and clearing out the dead trees caused by a series of tornadoes that left an area of distruction that took down thousands of trees. So the state sat and waited for years for the fire to come. Loggers begged the government to let them in to take out ONLY the downed trees to give the surviving trees a better chance to live....anyone familiar with woods knows you have got to take out the old stuff so the young stuff can sprout straight and true...but the government said no because they would have to take in motorized vehicles and chain-saws.

There is an outfit up here that still does things the old fashioned way...they use mules and pull saws to work the land....they were even told no because the bleeding-hearts thought that the best thing they could do is just let nature take its course {yeah, well, I wish they'd get the same feeling for "global warming", let nature take its course and she'll correct the whole issue} so we all sat on pins-and-pine-needles.

You saw the results of it the last couple of years with this summer being the worst....fire! A simple lightening strike nearly killed the entire BWCA, caused the few people lucky enough to be able to own property up there to flee, and had the fire leap across the bourder into Canada.

Had the loggers gotten those dead trees out of there, the woods would have been green to the ground....there wouldn't have been so much fuel laying around for the flames to feed on....the fire wouldn't have gotten so hot that it was nearly impossible to put out....firefighters wouldn't have lost lives....homes wouldn't have been lost....and we wouldn't have nearly had an international incident.

Now about these idiots---I think they just drank enough to loosen their inhabitions and bring up old feelings of resentment....lock them up....drunks and guns never mix.....while not condoning what they did I can see where the anger comes from.

I wonder if they will face Federal or just State charges....after all they were in a Federal reserve...and had fired upon innocent families; my guess is they will be going away for a long long while.

So sad.