I had not been to the BWCA for the past 4 years, kids’ sports and whatnot. But we had been tripping on the St. Croix a lot.

What I noticed this year was the terrible shape some campsites are in. We went in Moose River North to Oyster, Lac La Croix Etc. Is there some new reg where nails must be pounded into trees on every site or now green trees now burn well so cut them down. I have done this trip previously and every site we looked at was in a similar shape. I remember finding the odd site like this but for the entire week every site was similar. I was shocked, I guess I expect campers to have become better educated on this not worse.

Was this an anomaly?

quote mags459: "Is there some new reg where nails must be pounded into trees on every site or now green trees now burn well so cut them down.

Was this an anomaly? "

Based on the damaged campsite threads on the board so far this year, I'd say not.

I simply can't fathom that there are people who think it's ok to pound nails into live trees and cut green trees at BW campsites. It's stunning to me.

Saw the same thing in a couple Quetico sites in June. In one site on one of the islands en route to the Falls Chain on Sag, someone had cut down a bunch of young trees and zip tied them together to make a bench in front of the fire pit. The other trees, they just left discarded in a pile. Disgusting.

It's disappointing that although we're seeing increased law enforcement presence in the BWCA (see the thread on border patrol), it is not focused on the most important problems currently plaguing the area. It's not clear that we need more border control agents in canoe country, but it's obvious that we need more park rangers who can heavily fine all of the people who do this, and issue lifetime bans from wilderness areas for the worst offenders - those who can be proven to be acting with contempt for the wilderness, rather than just ignorance of the rules.

If we're going to have the new border patrol agents around, why not empower them to seek out and accost these vandals?

Sad to see. I have no idea how they would patrol this. They would have to inspect each campsite before and after. Unless they went with assigned numbered sites there is no way to tell who is where.

quote dele: "If we're going to have the new border patrol agents around, why not empower them to seek out and accost these vandals?"

Two completely different agencies with completely different jobs. I had park rangers visit my site a couple weeks ago in Quetico. I asked if they wanted to see my RABC, and they said nope, not their job. All they wanted to see was my park permit.