Bismark Tribune - Joe Banavige: Burgum can help save Boundary Waters

Read this piece by Joe Banavige, originally published to the Bismark Tribune. You can read the original piece here.

President-elect Donald Trump’s recent victory and commendable nomination of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for secretary of the Interior offer compelling opportunities to shift course and save America’s greatest Wilderness. 

The issue is a simple one -- a foreign company has been relentlessly seeking to mine copper in the watershed of the Boundary Waters, which if successful, will invariably devastate this highly valued natural resource. America has a proud history of mining iron ore in northern Minnesota, but the proposed exploitation of copper is a much different type of mining, produces destructive acid mine drainage, and fails on every informed risk/reward equation. Unfortunately, conserving this treasured American terrain has become a political football over several administrations, and as it stands now, Trump is poised to quickly reverse a 20-year ban on copper mining in the watershed. 

Three main streams of assessment support Trump changing course. First, the Boundary Waters is America’s Wilderness -- preserving it from pollution from upstream mining is the pinnacle of putting America first. According to the Department of the Interior, the associated terrain is “the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States.” It’s located within the Superior National Forest, which President Theodore Roosevelt established in 1909, and nothing evokes a pure sense of Americanism more than its pristine lakes and streams. On the opposite side of the equation, the company seeking to exploit the Boundary Waters headwaters is based in Chile and reportedly does much of its copper smelting in China. It’s akin to placing American interests last -- in both conservation and national security. 

Second, the demand equation for copper is changing rapidly. The potential elimination of electric vehicle tax credits by Trump would automatically decrease the artificially inflated need for any wilderness-edge copper. If Trump were to simultaneously save the Boundary Waters, it would show he has a well-balanced approach to both energy development and wilderness conservation. On the opposite side of the equation, mining copper near the Boundary Waters would unnecessarily damage this great resource for no important supply-based imperative. Quite simply, in this case, copper is the wrong type of mine, in the wrong type of place, and makes no common sense. 

Third, in the new vernacular of the day, it would be the DOGE thing to do. The Boundary Waters is a highly efficient Wilderness Area -- it’s highly visited; highly accessible (by geography, socio-economic background, age and ability level); highly cultural (with significant Native American and Voyageur history); highly profitable (thousands of recreation jobs already generate substantial tax revenues); highly formative (physically, mentally and spiritually); and requires little cost to maintain (most trails are made of water). It’s why close to 70% of Minnesotans, including bipartisan support, want it protected in perpetuity. On the opposite side of the equation, any copper mining jobs created would be small in number, short in term, potentially automated out of existence, and riddled with waste and abuse. Going forward, Trump will have the power to reverse course. His nomination of Burgum is a good sign. As a rancher, farmer, and governor of a highly productive agricultural state, he intimately understands the importance of water conservation. He has also been a highly vocal supporter of Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy, which bodes well for choosing to preserve America’s greatest wilderness. 

The ante for both men to be on the path toward Roosevelt conservationism is to simply keep the 20-year ban on copper mining intact. But to fully embody Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation ethos, they can choose to play a greater Trump card -- to use Roosevelt’s Antiquities Act to establish the Boundary Waters Headwaters as a national monument. If they do, it will place them firmly alongside the greatest of Republican and American conservation legacies -- those of Roosevelt, Grant, Harrison and Lincoln. I humbly ask Trump and Burgum to put America first, save America’s greatest wilderness, and thereby make it the cornerstone of their own foundational conservation legacies.