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Potential Sulfide-Ore Copper Mining on Superior National Forest Lands in the Boundary Waters Watershed: Timeline of Key Benchmarks

Support the businesses and organizations who support protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Here are a few businesses doing special promotions this season to give back and help us fight against the threat of sulfide-ore copper mining along the edge of the Wilderness!

SEEK DRY GOODS	11/25-12/1
	Outdoor-inspired clothing/accessory brand Seek Dry Goods is supporting the Campaign 11/25-12/1! Through their Season of Giving campaign we will receive a special donation from every purchase made through 12/1.  To participate, place an order on seekdrygoods.com (includes Free Shipping on US orders) and a portion will automatically be donated to the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. SHOP NOW: Seek Dry Goods - 11/25 - 12/1
REDBUDSUDS
	Gunflint Peppermint  Now you can help protect our Wilderness with every shower! Our friends at Redbudsuds is giving our cause 50% of each Gunflint Peppermint shower bar sold.  This 4-in-1 Shower Bar is Boundary Waters safe and has everything you need to get clean in one bar: shampoo, conditioner, body soap and shaving cream. Get yours for everyone on your holiday shopping list before they sell out! SHOP NOW: Redbudsuds - Gunflint Peppermint
HUMBLE APPAREL	12/1-12/25
	Humble Apparel Co. has partnered up with the Campaign to help protect the Boundary Waters! For any BWCA hat purchased, Humble will donate 25% of the proceeds to the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. Check out some of their awesome BWCA-inspired products! SHOW NOW: BWCA Gear from Humble Apparel
GREAT LAKES
	In collaboration with Great Lakes and local artist Mark Herman, they’ve launched this hoodie as the first product under their Freshwater Initiative - an ongoing and collaborative campaign to protect our waters. For each hoodie sold they'll be donating $20 directly to the Campaign. SHOP NOW: Great Lakes - BWCA Hoodie
STORM CREEK
	As part of Storm Creek’s Embrace the Cause initiative, Storm Creek has teamed up with the Campaign to launch one of these Performance Pullovers! $20 goes directly to help save the Boundary Waters. Use coupon code BWCA10 online to save 10% when you spend $50 or more. And don't forget to check out this awesome warehouse sale! SHOP NOW: Performance Pullover
AMAZON SMILE
	Through AmazonSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price from your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to a charity of your choice. Almost one million 501(c)(3) public charitable organizations participate in AmazonSmile, so whichever one you have on your mind is likely in its roster. SHOP NOW: AmazonSmile

Check out the other promotions on our shop to support page!

As you shop this holiday season, keep in mind the many brands and organizations helping protect the Boundary Waters and other public lands efforts. We have over 300 businesses that have joined our Boundary Waters Business Coalition - click here to see the list!

Dear Friend,

Today, on Give to the Max Day, I write to you from Washington, D.C. where I’m leading a contingency of 40 high school and college-aged kids, who are Wilderness Warriors from across America—including Peru—advocating to our nation's elected and appointed officials on behalf of our favorite Wilderness: The Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

It is your support that makes trips to D.C. like ours possible. Give NOW during the Power Hour to help the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters win additional Give to the Max Day funding that will take this fight even further.

Kids for the Boundary Waters meeting with Representative Betty McCollum in Washington, D.C., November 13, 2018.

Most of you know my story by now: at 13 years old I was diagnosed with leukemia and made a wish that became my mission—to protect the Boundary Waters against the threat posed by a giant, foreign mining company called Antofagasta.
 

Antofagasta has proposed sulfide-ore copper mining within the watershed of America’s most visited and pristine water wilderness. This type of mining is very different from Minnesota’s traditional taconite mining; sulfide ore copper mining has never been done in Minnesota, and has never been done anywhere without significant environmental damage. This foreign mining conglomerate wants to invade and endanger our wilderness in order to exploit and extract America’s resources. The result? Waters, wildlife and woods that will be forever altered and poisoned.
 

Please give NOW during this crucial Power Hour to help the Boundary Waters from this dangerous sulfide-ore copper mining.
 

Kids for the Boundary Waters in Washington, D.C., November 13, 2018.

In February I took my last dose of 3.5 years of daily chemotherapy, closed the door on cancer and decided it was time to up my game on behalf of the Boundary Waters. And so on June 19th, in front of the Washington Monument and with a small group of equally committed teenagers by my side, together we launched a new initiative: Kids For The Boundary Waters (Kids4BW). We are back in D.C. this week, working as hard as we can to save this special part of America for all of us.
 

Please join my team of Wilderness Warriors in protecting this special place for every generation. Right now is the Give to the Max Day Power Hour, a monumental hour that gives the organization who raises the most money during this hour of giving thousands of extra dollars to put towards their cause.

Not only will your donation help boost the Campaign’s chances of gaining thousands of dollars in additional funds, if you GIVE RIGHT NOW, you'll also be entered to win cool outdoor prizes. 

Even better news? When you donate right now, your gift will be doubled! We’ve received a generous $65,000 match, significantly increasing the impact of your donation. Please donate now to make the most impact.

Kids for the Boundary Waters, 40th Anniversary Celebration, October 22, 2018.

Living with cancer is no joke, but it is also a surprisingly good teacher. Although I’ll still be sorting lessons for years to come, the one thing I have learned for sure is that sometimes life only gives you one chance to get it done. This is it. This is our chance to save America’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

On behalf of Kids4BW Wilderness Warriors and the Save The Boundary Waters Campaign, thank you. Your support – your email, your comments, your amplification of our voices and, of course, your donation dollars, are all critically important as we work towards permanent protection of the Boundary Waters.

Paddle On!

Joseph Goldstein

Suit Up. Show Up. Repeat

DONATE HERE:

This past September, the Trump Administration officials announced that the application for a mineral withdrawal, which would have protected Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Wilderness from the threat of sulfide-ore copper mining, was cancelled. The Administration ignored science and facts, and did not complete a promised study on the social, economic and environmental harm that sulfide-ore copper mining would do to America’s most visited Wilderness. There is no indication the required environmental assessment was ever completed nor was it ever put out for public comment, which is normal practice.

Secretary Sonny Perdue’s Promise:

In May 2017, in response to Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D, MN), two senior members of the Trump Administration – Sonny Perdue, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (USDA), and Tom Tidwell, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service – promised the U.S. House Interior Appropriations Committee that they would “absolutely” complete an all-important environmental study intended to determine whether the watershed flowing into the Boundary Waters is the right place to consider sulfide-ore copper mining.  

The study was initiated in January, 2017, when the U.S. Forest Service submitted its formal request that federal lands in the Boundary Waters watershed be put off-limits to new mineral leasing and exploration for 20 years — a type of action called a “mineral withdrawal.”   

Secretary Perdue Broke His Promise:

On September 6, 2018, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture cancelled the Forest Service’s application for a withdrawal before the environmental study was complete. In doing so, he not only broke his word, but also turned his back on the Boundary Waters and all who love it.

How do we know the environmental study was never completed?

• The USDA’s September 6 press release never exactly said that the agency had completed it, and failed to provide a link to the study.  

• The Secretary’s cancelation of the study happened nearly two months before the U.S. Forest Service’s estimated date for when the final environmental review document would be available (November 1, 2018).  

The U.S. Forest Service admits it did not complete the environmental study. In an email responding to our written request for a copy of the completed environmental assessment (EA), The Press Officer for the Forest Service responded: “We do not have a completed EA to send you, because we determined there was not any need to complete the process on an environmental assessment based on what we learned over the last 15 months.”

Here are some of the facts behind the decision to open up Superior National Forest to sulfide-ore copper mining:

• 19  SCIENTIFIC STUDIES - The Trump Administration claims that after an “extensive review,” there was no new “scientific information.” However, public record shows that 19 new studies, reports, and scientific journal articles were submitted to the Forest Service on this issue.

• 4,500 JOBS > 650 JOBS - This year, a first-of-its-kind  independent economic analysis by Harvard economists was published.  It compared the effects of the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed 20-year mining ban near the Boundary Waters, with the consequences of sulfide-ore copper mining in the Boundary Waters watershed. The authors modeled 36 employment scenarios and 72 different income scenarios comparing the proposed 20-year ban versus a Twin Metals mine. In all employment scenarios the 20-year ban produced more jobs over a 20-year period in the Boundary Waters region than the mining scenario. In the best-case scenario, Twin Metals Minnesota would only create 650 jobs versus the 4,500 jobs that will be created over 20 years if copper mining is banned and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is protected.
  Learn more about the Harvard Study.

• $950 MILLION MORE FROM AN AMENITY-BASED ECONOMY THAN A COPPER MINE - The same Harvard study showed that a healthy Boundary Waters creates a healthy business boom for the long-haul: a 20-year mining ban would produce far greater economic benefit and diversity than the proposed Twin Metals mine with up to $900 million more personal income to the local area over 20 years if copper mining is banned. Learn more about the Harvard Study.

• NOT ONE COPPER MINE HAS OPERATED SAFELY - In the history of sulfide-ore copper mining, no copper mine has ever operated and been closed for at least 10 years without polluting surrounding surface water or groundwater. The copper mining industry has a long and continuing history  of severe water pollution including acid drainage, heavy metals contamination, sulfates, and exceedingly high specific conductance, as well as increasingly frequent catastrophic accidents such as tailings dam failures. And even state-of-the-art mines are at risk for major infrastructure disaster. “Research shows that mines with high acid generating potential and in close proximity to surface and groundwater are at highest risk for water quality impacts.” US Copper Porphyry Mines Report, Bonnie Gestring; Earthworks.

• 500+ YEARS OF POLLUTION - Conservative models of pollution show that waterways would carry contaminants into the Wilderness. A single mine in this watershed will continually pollute the wilderness for at least 500 years¹. Tom Meyers, Ph. D. said in one of his reports, “If the sulfide mines are developed in the Rainy Headwaters, it is not a question of whether, but when, a leak will occur that will have major impacts on the water quality of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.”
  Learn more about the scientific research pertaining to sulfide-ore copper mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness here.

• WE THE PEOPLE DON’T WANT THIS MINE - Hundreds of thousands are speaking out against this mine. Polling shows that more Minnesotans than ever want to protect the Boundary Waters from the threat of copper-nickel mining. Polling results from President Trump’s chief polling firm, Fabrizio Ward, show that 70% of Minnesotans are against sulfide-ore copper mining in the areas near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

  An analysis by Key Log Economics found that of the more than 81,000 unique comment letters submitted to the Forest Service in 2017, 98.2%  supported a 20-year ban on sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters. In addition, the Forest Service received petitions and postcards signed by 41,971 people that support the mineral withdrawal. Altogether, 121,539 people urged the Forest Service to protect the Boundary Waters. This scoping comment period generated the most participation in an environmental review process in Minnesota history.

• IVANKA TRUMP’S LANDLORD -It all comes down to one foreign billionaire who happens to be Ivanka Trump's landlord. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are paying $15,000 a month to rent their home in the D.C. from Andrónico Luksic, owner of foreign mining giant Antofagasta, the parent company to Twin Metals Minnesota. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Chilean billionaire bought a Washington, D.C., mansion for $5.5 million, just after the November election on December 22, 2016, and that twelve days after the purchase, Luksic’s company rented the mansion to Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner.

• It’s clear whose interest this Administration is serving. And it’s not that of the American people.  Antofagasta, which owns several copper mines in Chile, has an environmental and social track record that should concern anyone who cares about the Boundary Waters and the surrounding communities. We must continue to speak loudly for this quiet place.

^{1. Scoping comment letter (part 3) of NMW et al. Northern Minnesota Federal Minerals Withdrawal EIS 8-17-2017}