Like a lot of Montanans, I measure decisions about public lands through hard-earned experience, not political talking points. I’ve spent most of my adult life in Montana. I’ve built my career here and raised my family here. But I grew up in northern Minnesota, just west of the Boundary Waters. As a kid, I fished for walleye on Birch Lake, southwest of the Wilderness boundary, and I remember the signs posted at the landing: Don’t eat the fish. Mercury levels too high. Those warnings weren’t theoretical. They were the result of mining waste that found its way into the water. Back then we were told “the solution to pollution is dilution.” Time proved otherwise.