Due to the use of canoes for travel from campsite to campsite the majority of wear caused by humans is concentrated into the campsites and the portage trails where boats and gear is carted from lake to lake. The main impacts are those on the resources of the area such as firewood collection and those impacts upon the soils of the area through waste disposal and through compaction and erosion. It is the impacts of the soils in the campsites that I will focus on in this paper. Much of the vegetation and climate throughout the boreal forest are very similar as well as their effects on soil formation. The official Forest Service campsites in the Boundary Waters are made up of a fire grate and surrounding cooking area, one to three tent pads, and a latrine placed off a trail away from the water.
Campsites are nearly all accessible only by water.
The organic layer acts as a buffer to the compaction of the non organic layers. By decreasing the organic layer of the soil it effectively wipes out the part of the soil which supports the vegetation which keeps the processes of soil formation going. A measure of how much the soil has actually been compacted is that of bulk density. The problem of having such shallow soils is finding a spot suitable for latrines. In order to have a spot suitable for a latrine the soil must be of a texture which would not transmit contaminants to fast or to slow.