It has been 30 years since the 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act was passed into law.

It eliminated logging and snowmobiling in the BWCA.

It restricted mining and allowed motor boats on only a fourth of the water area.

It is a large area and it is impossible for us for encompass every issue during these reports, so Pat Kelly decided to focus on Ely, Minnesota.

The people around the city of Ely have adjusted and adapted...but there are still hard feelings - even 30 years later.

A group of canoeists loads up at an outfitter in Ely.

They're heading into the Boundary waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Over one-million acres...1200 miles of canoe routes...2000 campsites.

One of the most visited park areas in the country, with 750,000 visitors every year.

"This is an incredible area; there's nothing like it in the world and we're lucky to have it preserved."

Nancy Piragis and her husband came to Ely in the '70s - working for the E-P-A and the D-N-R to catalog wildlife.

Working purely as a scientist, she observed first-hand how the 1978 Wilderness Act - and the 1964 legislation's restrictions -were placed on the Boundary Waters.

"The '64 got rid of a lot of the homes, the motorized routes. The '78 legislation further restricted the motor routes and that was part of a negotiation, on what routes would be kept and what would be restricted."

"There was a buy-out back in '78, where the Forest Service came to everybody and said, 'here's the rules that we're going to have in place. What can you live with? And if you can't live with it, we will buy your place."

Bob Latourell's family felt those restrictions, but adapted.

"We were told when we didn't sell in 1978 that this chain of lakes that we're on - this ten-mile chain - Moose, - and Sucker Lakes - that we would have - that our guests would be exempt from permits in that area."

But that permit system for limiting access changed, too - and resort owners, outfitters and home owners along the Wilderness area now had to apply for motorized permits along with anyone who visited the area.

"You get to the end of September here, for our cabins, there are, I think, one to two permits a day allowed on this entire lake chain, so I have ten cabins."

What do you do?

"You tell people, 'here's where you can fish.' Which is this area right out front of us. They can't go into the other areas that we depend on."
In fact, in the last week of September, for example, there are seven permits allowed.

"That's for anybody in the lake here, anybody from Ely, anybody from Minneapolis, Chicago - anybody."

"Those who live here - whose livelihoods are dependent on it - should have the first opportunity for access." After all this area of their backyard is held in trust for all Americans."

"It was like a gut kick to us that we lost our snowmobile routes and our logging was stopped and we lost more motors on the boats, but if it had remained that...we healed over the next ten years. And over the next ten years, the economy was more geared to the canoe aspect."

Nancy McCready is the President of "Conservationists with Common Sense" - a group trying to preserve access to the BWCA - including through motorized uses.

Environmental groups like Friends of the Boundary Waters and the Wilderness Society are household names up here...but those names are many times spoken with contempt.

"The Forest Service sides with us: they know we are under a grossly inadequate number of permits for what the situation has now turned to. But, environmental groups are now suing them, knowing that it's gonna tie it up and be inaccurately managed, but they don't care; that's what they were striving for."

So, yes, there are still some hard feelings.

And in 1988 - ten years after the Wilderness Act was passed - a court case exemplified the pressure Ely residents felt.

And it all came down to the definition of one word in the Act: the word "feasible."

Pat Kelly for the Northland's NewsCenter.