(Duluth, MN)--Tomorrow, Tuesday May 24, at 10 am a group of Northeastern Minnesota residents will gather on the steps of Duluth City Hall to voice support for Rep. Betty McCollum's (D-MN) Boundary Waters Protection and Pollution Prevention Act. The bill would permanently protect America’s most visited Wilderness and Minnesota’s only national park by preventing risky sulfide-ore copper mining in the headwaters of both. The bill permanently withdraws 234,328 acres of National Forest lands in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs National Park from the federal mining program. To date, H.R. 2794, authored by Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN-4), has 52 cosponsors. A Congressional hearing on the bill will be held later that day. The press conference is jointly hosted by the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters and the W. J. McCabe Chapter of the Izaak Walton League.
The Boundary Waters is the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States, attracting more than 160,000 visitors from all over the world and helps drive more than $900 million in annual economic activity and helps support over 17,000 jobs. A peer-reviewed independent study from Harvard University showed that protecting the Boundary Waters from a proposed Twin Metals sulfide-ore copper mine would result in dramatically more jobs and more income over a 20-year period. Nearly 70% of Minnesotans support permanently protecting the Boundary Waters from the threat of sulfide-ore copper mining.
What: Joint press conference with the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters and Izaak Walton League.
Who: Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters; Julie O'Leary, President of the W. J. McCabe Chapter of the Izaak Walton League; Jason Zabokrtsky, owner and operator of the Ely Outfitting Company; Clare Shirley, owner and operator, Sawbill Canoe Outfitters; Jay DeCoux, Mayor of Grand Marais; Dr. Jen Pearson, practicing doctor from Duluth
When: Tuesday, May 24 at 10 am
Where: Duluth Civic Center, City Hall Steps
424 W 1st St, Duluth, MN 55802
(In case of rain the press conference will be held right inside the City Hall commons)
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