Protect Our Boundary Waters: Environment Minnesota teams up with Save the Boundary Waters
This is the second summer in a row now that Environment Minnesota has teamed up with Save the Boundary Waters. Environment Minnesota is a project of Environment America, a policy and action organization with one mission: to protect the natural world. Our partnership with STBW continues to grow as we work together to protect our country’s most visited wilderness.
This work has never been more urgent. In April, Congress voted to overturn protections for the Boundary Waters by repealing the existing 20-year mining ban. This decision clears a path for companies like Twin Metals to potentially have their mineral leases reinstated in the nearby Superior National Forest. Sulfide-ore copper mining in this area would inevitably contaminate local waters with toxic sulfuric acid runoff, harming the wildlife and pristine quality of the Boundary Waters.
To counter these threats, our campaign is laser-focused on advocating for state-level protection alongside Save the Boundary Waters. State-level protections have never been more important. We are pushing for the passage of bills HF 309 and SF 875 in the Minnesota state legislature. These bills would permanently ban copper mining in the Rainy River watershed, ensuring protection of this beautiful wilderness.
Our teams are actively building public support for these protections by having more than 15,000 conversations over the course of the summer, and delivering more than 12,000 petitions to our lawmakers. Environment Minnesota Canvassers are going door-to-door in and around the Twin Cities until early of July. Our efforts have been so successful that we also have visited Duluth twice. We hope that before the end of the summer we will visit both Rochester and Mankato, both of which we visited last year. We are educating our fellow Minnesotans on the immediate risks and talking to them about how state officials have the power to preserve the Boundary Waters.
Our long-term vision is clear: to keep the Boundary Waters largely untouched, just as it has been for centuries. We owe it to generations before us and after us to ensure this pristine wilderness remains protected forever.
Katelynn Rolfes is the conservation Advocate for Environment Minnesota. She works alongside the canvass to build the support needed to permanently protect the Boundary Waters. She also works on other conservation projects in Minnesota, moving us towards a cleaner, greener, and healthier future.
