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The BWCAW as we know it today was born with the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978. But a long, often contentious, history brought events to that point. The Shipstead-Newton-Nolan Act of 1930, the first federal law to order the setting aside of lands for wilderness, effectively ended Edward Backus' plans to impound waters in the area for industrial hydropower. The Wilderness Act of 1964 established the current wilderness preservation system in the country. The next year, a new management plan for the Boundary Waters required permits to enter the wilderness. In 1971 designated campsites were instituted on heavily used lakes. In 1975 designated campsites were made a wilderness-wide rule and allowable group sizes were lowered from 15 to 10 persons. Despite Representative James Oberstar’s bill to establish a Boundary Waters Wilderness Area of 625,000 acres and a Boundary Waters National Recreation Area of 527,000 acres where logging and mechanized travel would be allowed–including on Lac la Croix, Basswood, Saganaga, and Seagull Lakes–the Boundary Waters Act was passed in 1978. Since then, wilderness and multiple use proponents have often used the courts to clash over interpretations of the Act.
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