The soft, intimate hoots shared by a pair of loons fishing off our campsite and the sweet melody of song birds wafted around the granite slab stretching towards the east where I perched to watch this morning’s sunrise. Shortly before the sun lifted above the trees on the far shore of Brule Lake, the rapid hammering of a pileated woodpecker grabbed my attention. The bird continued pounding away on a massive, hollow white pine behind our campsite for several minutes. This natural sound caused me to reflect on the wide range of hums, bangs, and blasts that would accompany Twin Metals and other proposed mines that would transform a large swath along the edge of the wilderness into a massive industrial mining zone. We are out here to speak loudly for this quite place and we hope you will make your voice heard and help us @savetheBWCA by signing the petition at http://ift.tt/1x2erSX
Years ago while traveling across the Northwest Territories by dogsled, a Dene elder explained that when you travel by dog team you see every rock and every tree. The land speaks to you. When traveling in this manner, we hear the land in a way that we ordinarily don’t in our modern lives. After being immersed in the Wilderness for 237 days I think we are beginning to fully grasp what he meant.
We can’t let the noise that is all too prevalent in our modern lives drown out the voice of the earth, which has guided and nurtured us for generations. Wild places allow us hear the land more clearly, a voice we would be lost without.
#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #onlyinMN #captureMN #portage #sunrise #BoundaryWaters #minnesota #BWCA
