Press Release

This legislation would ensure permanent protection of the Boundary Waters from any future sulfide-ore copper mining mineral leasing in the Rainy River Watershed of the Superior National Forest while excluding sand, gravel, granite, iron ore, and taconite mining, and also allows for the continued use of the Superior National Forest for ongoing mining and logging operations.

Department of the Interior orders 20-year mineral withdrawal in the Rainy River Watershed of Northeast Minnesota

Hunters and anglers applauded a proposal Thursday from federal agencies that would protect the nation’s most visited wilderness, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. A long-awaited analysis from the U.S. Forest Service shows that copper-nickel mining poses a major risk to the BWCA, and the USFS draft environmental assessment proposes a 20-year ban on copper-nickel mining on federal lands in the watershed.

A broad coalition of hunters and anglers today applauded an announcement by the Department of the Interior to cancel two federal hardrock mineral leases located in the Superior National Forest within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed, citing the importance of this move to sustaining the Boundary Waters’ recreational, economic and fish and wildlife values.

Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers today commended a decision by the Biden administration to protect the Boundary Waters Wilderness watershed from industrial mining. The action this morning by the Departments of Agriculture and Interior includes an application for a 20-year ban on sulfide-ore copper mining on federal public lands in the wilderness watershed. Called a mineral withdrawal, the process kicks off a comprehensive study of the potential effects of sulfide-ore copper mining in the Boundary Waters watershed.

Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters applauds the request U.S. Sen. Tina Smith delivered to two federal agencies urging action that could lead to 20 years of protection for America’s most visited wilderness. In a letter today, Sen. Smith, D-Minn., asked the U.S. Forest Service to re-initiate an environmental review process for a 20-year ban on copper-sulfide mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters believes the withdrawal process Smith requests will protect this valuable public land and its resources from sulfide-ore copper mining for today’s hunters and anglers and future generations.

Leaders in the conservation community commended the introduction of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act (H.R. 5598), bipartisan legislation that would provide permanent protection, for current and future generations, of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and interconnected public lands and waters located within the watershed.

For Immediate Release Twin Metals Mine Plan Of Operation Submitted Today ELY, MN – Today Twin Metals submitted a mine plan of operations to state and federal agencies to begin

We support all science-based review of this project, but the science is clear: Sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters is not worth the risk.

Today Twin Metals Minnesota announced new plans to dry stack it’s acid-generating mine tailings in the watershed of the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs National Park, even closer to the BWCA