Boundary Waters: Endangered & Irreplaceable

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There is something spiritual about packing a canoe with everything you need to survive and launching into a WiFi-less world. The coming days will be filled with thickly wooded shorelines and silent, starry nights. Your shoulders will burn from paddling. Your boots will be muddy from portaging. You’ll likely have mosquito bites in unseemly places. And despite all that—or because of it—your trip into the backcountry of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness may just be one of the most enchanting adventures of your life.

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Photo by: Jim Bradenburg

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness encompasses 1,200 miles of rivers and streams and more than 1,000 lakes in far northern Minnesota at the Canadian border. Anishinaabe people (including the Ojibwe and the Chippewa) have a deep connection to these lands and waters. They harvest wild rice in the Boundary Waters region and maintain treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather on these lands.

More than 155,000 visitors a year arrive in the Boundary Waters to paddle the Kawishiwi River and portage lake to lake in pursuit of solitude, adventure, and exceptional hunting and fishing opportunities. The country’s most-visited wilderness area supports 17,000 jobs for Minnesotans and generates more than $913 million annually. Walleye, northern pike, lake trout, smallmouth bass, wolves, lynx, moose, bear, loons, river otters, bald eagles, and osprey make their home in the wilderness area’s clean waters and quiet boreal forests.

American Rivers named the Boundary Waters among America's Most Endangered Rivers® of 2021 to spotlight the urgent threat of mining—and what the public can do to save our country’s most beloved wilderness area.

But the Boundary Waters are under threat: a massive sulfide-ore copper mine is proposed at the headwaters of the Kawishiwi River, just outside the wilderness area. Scientists say that pollution is inevitable. This is the most toxic industry in America, and according to the Environmental Protection Agency, hard-rock mining near the Boundary Waters could devastate habitat, fragment the forest, introduce invasive species, and cause air, noise, and light pollution. “The consequences of building this type of toxic mining on the edge of the Boundary Waters would have cascading effects on regional tourism, recreation, and hospitality industries,” says Amanda John Kimsey with The Wilderness Society. “It would endanger beloved wildlife, and cause irreparable damage to lands and waters where Anishinaabe people retain fishing, hunting, and gathering rights. This is the wrong place for the wrong mine.”

Nearly 70 percent of Minnesotans support permanent protection for the Boundary Waters.
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American Rivers named the Boundary Waters among America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2021 to spotlight the urgent threat of mining—and what the public can do to save our country’s most beloved wilderness area. Each year since 1984, American Rivers’ report on America’s Most Endangered Rivers® has been a call to action for 10 rivers and waterways whose fates hang in the balance. The national campaign galvanizes thousands of people around the country to contact their elected officials to save rivers. And it shines the national media spotlight on issues that impact local lives and river ecosystems. America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2021 underscores how threats to rivers are threats to human health, safety, and survival.

Nearly 70 percent of Minnesotans support permanent protection for the Boundary Waters. A broad coalition of local and national conservation organizations, businesses, hunting and fishing groups, youth, and other allies are working together to achieve permanent protection for this ecologically important, cherished landscape. Bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and one Canadian First Nation have also asked the U.S. government to ban sulfide-ore copper mining on federal public lands in the area. During the last administration, unprecedented efforts were made to bury environmental and economic impact studies and reinstate mining leases held by the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta. We now have an opportunity to shore up protections and bring science back into the decision-making process.

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Wolf Pups (Canus lupus) in Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota, U.S.A, North America.

American Rivers and our partners are calling on the Biden administration to issue a 20-year federal ban on mineral mining on federal public lands in the watershed, starting with a two-year pause and robust study of the risks of mining in this unique and treasured place. Further, Congress must pass and President Biden must sign legislation introduced by Representative Betty McCollum (MN-4) to permanently protect the Boundary Waters from sulfide-ore copper mining. This bill was approved by the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee last September and is expected to be reintroduced in the 117th Congress.

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