Fishing

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.

In the latest attempt to permit a copper-nickel mine upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a new congressional effort is underway to lift the federal moratorium on mining in the Rainy River Watershed, as was announced on January 8th, 2025, in an Interior Department filing in the Congressional Record. This was furthered by Representative Pete Stauber’s introduction of HJ Res. 140 on Monday, January 12th, in the House of Representatives. 

In his latest attempt to sow chaos amongst public land advocates across the United States, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced legislation that would not only alter over 9.5 million acres of Wilderness in U.S. Borderlands if passed, but would also fundamentally change the Wilderness Act and its ability to protect wild places like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from development. This comes months after Senator Lee introduced legislation that would permanently sell off millions of acres of public lands in the western United States.

Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters, the leading voice for hunters and dedicated to protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, today announced the appointment of Ron Monson as chair of the SFBW board of directors and Mark Neuzil as BOD vice chair. As passionate conservation leaders, both bring extensive experience in advocacy and deep personal connections to the Boundary Waters, including an unshakeable commitment to defending the BWCAW from threats, which in the immediate include sulfide-ore copper mining within the wilderness watershed.

After a massively successful year of planning, preparation, and executing a huge volunteer day last August, we are excited to offer some updates on the Pine Island Wildlife Management Area on Lake Vermilion! Thank you to our incredible sponsor, the onX Access + Stewardship Initiative, the Minnesota DNR Tower Wildlife crew, the 50 volunteers who helped us pull this off, and everyone who had a hand in this project.

The Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Kate McGregor, has reinstated a legal opinion from 2017 with a key interpretation that will have a significant impact on Twin Metal’s plan to mine for non-ferrous minerals in the Rainy River Watershed. 

Details on the current threats, both legislative and administrative, to Boundary Waters protections. Stay tuned for more details and actions as these threats to the BWCA progress.

As an all-around angler, I am proficient at best, but after fishing everywhere from the salt flats of Belize to the border lakes of the Boundary Waters last year, I feel compelled to share some of my biggest takeaways and, if you’ll permit me, wax poetically about how much I love fishing. 

Release: Hunters and Anglers Applaud Introduction of Legislation to Permanently Protect Boundary Waters. A historic push to ensure future generations can hunt, fish, and paddle in the iconic watershed could be in dire jeopardy if public land advocates remain silent.

On March 20th, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the Executive Order “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production.” This EO invokes wartime powers for the president and a number of federal agency secretaries to identify significant mineral deposits on federal lands and, through federal funding and private industry input, designate mineral production as the official use of those federal public lands. This is an immediate threat to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and federal public lands at large. This action must be monitored very closely in the coming weeks and months to defend the places we cherish the most.