Boundary Waters are threatened by mining

One of my favorite places on Earth — Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness — faces devastation because of politics. The U.S. House of Representatives may vote this week on a resolution (HJ 140) to nullify a current 20-year ban on mining in the Superior National Forest near the BWCAW.

The move is part of a Trump administration plan to allow a Chilean mining company to operate a huge copper-nickel mining complex just outside the one-million-acre wilderness. The mine would lie within the BWCAW watershed, with potential for runoff of sulfides and other wastes to enter pristine rivers and lakes in the wilderness.

The threat is compounded by legislation from Utah Sen. Mike Lee to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to build roads, surveillance towers, and other infrastructure, and send ICE agents into the BWCAW.

I’ve been enamored with the lakes, rivers, rocks, and wildness of the BWCAW since I first visited there as a Coe College student in 1965. We studied the ecology of the region while paddling and portaging routes charted by Indigenous people and fur traders.

Subsequently, I’ve made dozens of return trips on adventures with family and friends. The idea that this canoe country wilderness could be threatened by a foreign company’s mining seems unfathomable! Thousands of Iowans who visit the BWCAW annually share that alarm.

Please contact your congressional representatives and urge a NO vote on H. J. Resolution 140, and other threats to the wilderness character of the BWCAW.

Larry A. Stone

Elkader,