Leave no trace does not mean leave no money behind, it turns out.
A new report shows the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness brings in $57 million in spending to St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties, with a total economic impact of $77 million. And that's just from summer visitors who live outside those counties.
"We've always known the Boundary Waters makes a contribution - we needed to have a scientifically valid way to show that," said Paul Danicic, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. "It shows this is a national and international resource and destination."
Danicic hails the report as the first of its kind for the wilderness area, both in sample size and extent. His group and the Quetico Superior Foundation enlisted the nonprofit Conservation Economics Institute to complete the study.
More than 500 visitors were surveyed last summer, and the results were released last week.
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"This is the first of concentric circles of studies to come," Danicic said. "This is in no way the total economic value of the Boundary Waters," since it leaves out local and winter spending.
The report calls the Boundary Waters an export for Northeastern Minnesota, since so much money is coming in from outside the immediate region. And of those outside visitors - mostly from the Twin Cities, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan - more than half reported household incomes of $100,000 or more.
"This outside money brought into the region represents a basic industry and spurs the need for community in-filling services such as medical, financial and entertainment services," the study reads.
About 1,000 jobs are supported by visitors to the wilderness area, which range from outfitters, lodging, food service and other retail and government positions.
"The duration and sustainability of these jobs is much greater than extractive industries based on nonrenewable resource extraction, and nature tourism is not as susceptible to market volatility," reads the study.
Extractive industries do tend to pay more, though Danicic pointed out the region's economy can't be all mining or all tourism.
"These jobs are only one slice of a resilient economy," he said.
The study comes amid an ongoing fight over the Twin Metals proposed copper mines in the Boundary Waters watershed.
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"We should use that information in how we make decisions," Danicic said. "We can be proud of our mining past and considerate of our future."
