This bill was a precursor to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act which was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 21, 1978.
In November 1979 the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness co-sponsored the world's first International Acid Rain Conference in Toronto, Ontario.
This act recognized that acid rain and mercury pollution posed a major threat to the Boundary Waters and the extremely fragile ecosystem which is represents.
In 1986, Minnesota become the only state to set a specific standard to protect its sensitive aquatic ecosystems at about 10 lbs/acre[2] of sulfate thanks in part to the efforts of the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
[7] In response, the Friends announced that they would remain vigilant against other visual intrusions on the wilderness, and work with local governments to prevent similar towers from being constructed.
[10] In March 2014, The Friends of the Boundary Waters filed comments critical of the supplemental draft Environmental Impact Statement of the PolyMet mine proposal with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The Friends continue to work for clean air legislation to protect the sensitive Superior-Quetico ecosystem and eliminate haze created by coal-fired power plants.
They include files and papers of Miron (Bud) Heinselman of St. Paul, a U.S. Forest Service ecologist who was active in the environmental movement and was an expert on the ecology of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of northern Minnesota.