File name: BWCAW_PrimaryForest_oct2015 Summary: This primary forest coverage was developed in 2014-2015 as an aid to tree-ring fire history investigations in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Kipfmueller et al. 2021, Larson et al. 2021, Johnson and Kipfmueller 2016). The coverage is generally useful for research and stewardship of the forest communities within the BWCAW. The map is meant as a guide for presence/absence of primary forest and is not a substitute for on-the-ground assessments of forest age, composition, and structure. The coverage is still a work in progress and may be further refined with the help of coverage users. The coverage is best used to visualize primary forest extents and is not meant, at this time, to provide exact measures of remaining old-growth forest. Wildfires from 2015-2021 may have caused further reductions in old-growth extents. Description: Here primary forest, also known as old-growth or virgin forest, is composed of forest communities that established following past disturbances such as wildfire or severe windstorms and not impacted by 19th and 20th century logging activities. This coverage depicts the best approximation of current primary forest with at least one overstory component of 120 years in age or greater (in 2015) that exists within the borders of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Embedded within the blocks of primary forest are patches of long-lived, fire-maintained red and white pine woodlands that are some of the most biologically rare community types in the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province of North America. The primary forest of the Boundary Waters wilderness offers unique visitor experiences, wildlife habitat, rare cultural features, and unmatched opportunities for the scientific study of forest processes. Because primary growth forests are of great scientific and social value, they warrant special management, particularly in regards to planned fire. Credits: Coverage developed with the use of multiple datasets from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, US Forest Service - Superior National Forest, and Miron Heinselman (1973; 1996) (digitized by the Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota). Financial support for this undertaking was provided by the National Science Foundation's Geography and Spatial Sciences program. Use limitations: Please consult Lane Johnson (lbj@umn.edu), Dr. Evan Larson (larsonev@uwplatt.edu), or Dr. Kurt Kipfmueller (kurt@umn.edu) prior to use or distribution. Processing environment ⇔  Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.8.0.12790 Zip contains: 1 Shapefile Feature class type: Simple Polygon Number of features: 1903 Fields/Attributes: FID Description = Internal feature number. Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Description = Feature geometry. Coordinates defining the features. BWCA_UNIT Description = Acreage Description = Hectares Description = Extent West -92.376977 East -90.073894 North 48.362494 South 47.752297 Scale Range Maximum (zoomed in) 1:50,000 Minimum (zoomed out) 1:625,000 Spatial Reference ► Geographic coordinate reference ⇔ GCS_North_American_1983 Projection ⇔ NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_15N WKID 26915 WKT PROJCS["NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_15N",GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["False_Easting",500000.0],PARAMETER["False_Northing",0.0],PARAMETER["Central_Meridian",-93.0],PARAMETER["Scale_Factor",0.9996],PARAMETER["Latitude_Of_Origin",0.0],UNIT["Meter",1.0],AUTHORITY["EPSG",26915]] Reference system identifier  Value ⇔ 26915 Codespace ⇔ EPSG Version ⇔ 6.13(3.0.1) Referenced by: Evan R. Larson, Kurt F. Kipfmueller & Lane B. Johnson (2021) People, Fire, and Pine: Linking Human Agency and Landscape in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Beyond, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111:1, 1-25, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1768042 Kipfmueller, K. F., Larson, E. R., Johnson, L. B., and Schneider, E. A.. 2021. Human augmentation of historical red pine fire regimes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Ecosphere 12( 7):e03673. 10.1002/ecs2.3673 Larson, E.R., Johnson, L.B., Wilding, T.C. et al. Faces in the Wilderness: a New Network of Crossdated Culturally-Modified Red Pine in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Northern Minnesota, USA. Hum Ecol 47, 747–764 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-00109-4