Climate warming is predicted to cause boreal forests in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), Minnesota, to shift to savanna and/or temperate forest in the next century. Invasive earthworms, exotic tree pests, and deer overabundance will magnify the impacts of warmer temperatures. Seldom do we assess potential threats to ecosystem and wilderness integrity in a systematic way and develop policy and management strategies ahead of time to mitigate the situation. Debates on several issues involving wilderness users, managers, and scientists need to be resolved for the BWCAW. These include whether, when, and how to: (1) use fire; (2) restore tree species to wilderness areas lost through human actions (e.g., logging of white [...]