MPR Poll: Most favor keeping BWCA intact
Bill Wareham, 5/23/96

A Minnesota Public Radio...St. Paul Pioneer Press...KARE-TV poll shows Minnesotans largely favor leaving the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as it is. The numbers suggest little interest in Congressional action to either expand motorboat access to the area OR further restrict access in the handful of lakes where motors are now allowed. Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Wareham reports:

Members of Minnesota's congressional delegation have set off a political tug-of-war by offering competing bills over the future of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. But few respondents to the MPR-Pioneer Press-KARE-11 poll would pull for legislation offered by James Oberstar and Rod Grams to expand motorized use --OR that offered by Bruce Vento to ban motors on more lakes. 56-percent said they favor no change in the BWCA...where federal law limits motorboats to about 20 of 11-hundred lakes. Poll respondent Antoinette Long lives in Minneapolis:

Only 20-percent favor the idea behind Oberstar's plan -- to expand motorized travel on several lakes and portages near the edge of the BWCA. Scott Kiehn of Cloquet is among those who said they would like to see current restrictions lifted:

Congressman Oberstar says his plan for re-opening three motorized portages closed by the courts in 1993 would get a better responses if the public had a better understanding of the legislation:

Part of the Grams/Oberstar plan did get a favorable response. In a separate question on land management...54-percent of respondents say Minnesotans should have a greater say in BWCA operations through creation of management councils. The councils would advise the National Forest Service...which now runs the area without local input. Bruce Vento's plan to ban motorboats from more BWCA lakes fared worst of all options put before respondents -- appealing to only 14 percent. Vento says he's not disappointed:

Senator Paul Wellstone...who has felt fellow Democrats Oberstar and Vento pulling in opposite directions...has -- arguably -- the most to gain from Minnesotans lack of interest in changing BWCA policy. In fact...when asked directly what position Wellstone should take...most respondents -- 36-percent -- said stick with current law...and 26-percent favored Wellstone's proposal for an outside mediator. Less than 20-percent suggest he support either the Vento or Oberstar plans. But the challenge for Wellstone isn't just to please a majority of Minnesotans. He must make sure he does so without alienating two of his core constituencies -- environmentalists who oppose motorized traffic and 8th district DFLers who live near the BWCA and want to see restrictions relaxed. Campaign manager Jeff Blodgett says with that challenge in mind the senator will continue to seek compromise through mediation:

The polling date reflects the views of 812 registered Minnesota voters contacted by phone between May 16th and 18th. The margin for error is plus or minus 3-and-a-half percentage points. I'm BW, MPR.