It also establishes some form of management to maintain the area and places restrictions on logging, mining, and the use of motorized vehicles.

After much debate, and passage by the U.S. House and Senate, the act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 21, 1978.

[2] Serious concerns about destruction of the BWCA began to surface in the spring of 1964 when a group of people from the Twin Cities metropolitan region of Minnesota, known as the Conservation Affiliates, asked the United States Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman to stop logging and the use of motor vehicles in the Boundary Waters.

On May 21, 1964, Secretary Freeman announced that he had appointed a Boundary Waters Canoe Area review committee, chaired by George A. Selke.

Secretary Freeman accepted the report and decided to allow a one-year period for public comment due to the controversy surrounding the issues.

[4] On December 15, 1965, Secretary Freeman issued his directive implementing the recommendations of the Wilderness Act and the Selke committee.

This decision was implemented to maintain and preserve the beautiful scenery of the area and to avoid the pristine waters from gathering pollution.

On April 16, 1973, Judge Miles Lord stated that seven timber contracts did harvest trees from virgin forests which would require an EIS under the NEPA.

Judge Lord issued his final decision for MPIRG and Sierra Club v. Butz et al. on August 13, 1975.

He found that timber cutting within blocks of virgin forests violated the intent of the Wilderness Act and was illegal.

This bill was strongly opposed by environmentalists[2] Among the largest group of opposition was the pro-wilderness Friends of the Boundary Waters, led by Kevin Proescholdt.

At the same time, Representative Oberstar worked with several large lumber companies with the Forest Service acting as a mediator to suspend cutting for six months while Congress could examine the issue without further damage to the environment and external pressure.

[3] In order to resolve issues between the two bills, a U.S. House subcommittee on national parks and recreation held two field hearings in July 1977 in Minnesota.

[5] After the hearings, another bill was drafted and unveiled in March 1978, this time sponsored by California's Phillip Burton, chair of the Interior's National Parks and Insular Affairs subcommittee, and Minnesota Representative Bruce Vento.

[5] On October 15, 1978 in the final hours of the Ninety-fifth Congress, the House and the Senate passed the revised version of H.R.

Although the area may look nearly the same as it did prior to 1978, it is currently much quieter and mostly free of motorized vehicles.The use of motorboats in the wilderness was highly controversial, as they caused noise and environmental pollution.

[1] The Act designated the following lakes as being free of the horsepower limit: Snowmobiles were also considered by many visitors to be destructive and noisy.

[1] The Act stated that the Secretary of Agriculture must terminate all timber sale contracts in the BWCA within one year of its passage.

The one year termination period allows contracts to expire and for the logging companies to take corrective steps to clean up and restore tracts of timber which were harvested heavily.