The Boundary Waters is on the Ballot: Minnesota Visit by Trump-Vance Campaign Serves as Stark Reminder of Threats to Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
(Ely, MN)-- Ahead of tomorrow’s inaugural Trump-Vance Campaign visit to Minnesota, Boundary Waters Action Fund Director Alex Falconer issued the following statement:
“The Trump-Vance ticket would spell disaster for public lands, including the Boundary Waters. One need only to look at former President Trump’s record in office and past visits to Minnesota to see that a Trump-Vance Administration would all but guarantee that America’s most visited Wilderness would become a playground for foreign copper mining interests. Let this and all future Campaign visits by the Trump-Vance ticket remind us of what is at stake for Canoe Country in 2024.”
During his first term in office in 2018, Trump Administration officials canceled the application for a mineral withdrawal despite congressional testimony that the study would be completed. Further, the Administration unlawfully renewed federal mineral leases within the watershed for Twin Metals, owned by Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta. On May 17th, 2024 at the GOP Lincoln-Reagan dinner in St. Paul, MN, Trump said he would reverse Biden administration policies restricting mining in northeastern Minnesota aimed at protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Direct mention of the Boundary Waters and reversal of President Biden’s historic protections are included within Project 2025 (page 523).
The Boundary Waters is the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States, attracting more than 165,000 visitors from all over the world. It is a major driver of the regional economy, supporting hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs. A vast collection of peer-reviewed science shows that if a Twin Metals copper-nickel mine were built along the rivers and streams flowing into the Wilderness, pollution and environmental degradation would be certain. A peer-reviewed independent study from Harvard University showed that protection of the Boundary Waters from a proposed Twin Metals sulfide-ore copper mine would result in dramatically more jobs and more income over a 20-year period.
Nearly 70 percent of Minnesotans support permanent protection for this priceless Wilderness area. A poll conducted by Change Research of Minnesota midterm voters finds that 7 in 10 (69%) support legislation to permanently protect Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from the threat of sulfide-ore copper mining. The poll of 1,098 2022 Minnesota voters from November 7-10, 2022, found that support for permanent protection ran high across all demographics and every region of the state.
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