State of the River 2004-2005
Boundary Waters-Voyageur Waterway
(Quetico, Pigeon River, LaVerendrye Pr.Pks, Ontario)
“ Paddlers Paradise”
Designated 1996
The waterway continues to recover from massive blowdowns from the summer of 1999, and subsequent fires. In LaVerendrye Provincial Park many trees are still down along the shoreline, and the area is a restricted fire zone for much of the spring and summer, due to extreme fire hazard conditions resulting from the blowdown. Forestry operations took place adjacent to the park boundary in many locations. This is a salvage cut to recover from the blowdown in 1999, and reduce the fire hazard outside the park. A portion of land along the Pigeon River, south of Highway 593, was purchased by The Nature Conservancy ( Minnesota) and Ontario Parks Canadian nature conservancy at Horne Falls for future regulation into LaVerendrye and Pigeon River Provincial Parks. Once regulated this will provide a land base to protect waterway from development.
In Pigeon River Provincial Park, new trails under the Great Lakes Heritage program were developed near Lake Superior, including a 400-metre boardwalk with viewing platform on Lake Superior and a 2.5-km hiking trail along Finger Point. The High Falls Trail along the Pigeon River was upgraded with new stairs and footbridge. Extensive portage trail rehabilitatiion was done in the Knife Lake Area of Quetico.
In Quetico Provincial Park, prescribed burns were carried out adjacent to the Heritage River, on the U.S. side of Knife Lake
For more information, contact:Lynda Horman, Park Superintendent, Pigeon River, LaVerendrye 807-473-9231, and Robin Reilly, Park Superintendent, Quetico, 807-597-6185 x 246
|
