the Media Room

Senator Smith’s landmark bill marks nearly fifty years since the U.S. Senate last introduced legislation to protect the Boundary Waters, paving the way for enduring and irrevocable protection of this embattled Wilderness once and for all. 

Late Thursday afternoon, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” which puts America’s public lands, including protected, special places such as the Boundary Waters, at imminent risk of development from mining. The Order fast-tracks domestic mining on federal lands, ordering that the primary use of any federal lands with mineral deposits should be mining.

“Under the guise of national security, the Trump Administration has taken its next step toward dismantling vital protections for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and its watershed. By taking the extreme step of weaponizing Cold War-era powers to prioritize mining on all public lands – which includes federally designated Wilderness Areas, national forests, national parks, wildlife refuges, and more – the administration has thoroughly demonstrated its commitment to sacrificing America’s public lands for corporate gain,” said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters.

“The Boundary Waters is America’s most visited – and our most threatened – Wilderness. The countdown to an all-but-certain and unprecedented revocation of Biden’s historic mining ban in the Boundary Waters watershed has begun. The robust record of science, law, public opinion, and economics is clear – copper mining does not belong on the doorstep of one of America’s most iconic landscapes. Rep. McCollum’s Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act is crucial and common sense legislation to secure these lasting protections. This bill ensures that this beloved and long-protected place remains intact while upholding Northeastern Minnesota’s economic vitality and way of life,” said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters 

The American people don’t want the most toxic industry, sulfide-ore copper mining, on the doorsteps of the most visited Wilderness Area in the nation – 70% of Minnesotans support a ban on this kind of toxic mining in the Boundary Waters headwaters.

On Wednesday, E&E News by POLITICO reported that House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman plans to fast-track mining projects, with the Twin Metals project in Minnesota topping his list. This move reinforces the new administration’s clear agenda to dismantle protections for the entire Boundary Waters watershed—including undoing Biden’s historic 20-year mineral withdrawal, a goal they’ve vowed to pursue within their first “ten minutes” in office.

The death of President Jimmy Carter marks the loss of one of the Boundary Waters’ most historic champions. President Carter’s leadership was instrumental in protecting this treasured Wilderness. On October 21, 1978, he signed the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act into law—a landmark achievement for America’s most visited Wilderness.