Person with camera on misty lake

the Media Room

March 25, 2025

Late Thursday afternoon, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” which puts America’s public lands, including protected, special places such as the Boundary Waters, at imminent risk of development from mining. The Order fast-tracks domestic mining on federal lands, ordering that the primary use of any federal lands with mineral deposits should be mining.

March 21, 2025

“Under the guise of national security, the Trump Administration has taken its next step toward dismantling vital protections for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and its watershed. By taking the extreme step of weaponizing Cold War-era powers to prioritize mining on all public lands – which includes federally designated Wilderness Areas, national forests, national parks, wildlife refuges, and more – the administration has thoroughly demonstrated its commitment to sacrificing America’s public lands for corporate gain,” said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters.

February 20, 2025
Minnesota Senator Hauschild introduced a troubling bill that goes against the balanced decision made in July of 2024 when the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands (OSTL), and the U.S. Forest Service announced a plan to transfer 80,000 acres of school trust lands inside of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) to federal management in return for payment into the OSTL Permanent School Fund.
 
February 13, 2025
Today, Save the Boundary Waters hosted a press event at the Minnesota Capitol with Senator Steve Cwodzinski and Representative Alex Falconer chief authors of the Boundary Waters Permanent Protection bill (S.F.875 and awaiting a bill number in the House). They were joined by Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, Jack Lee, Executive Director of Voyageur Outward Bound School, and Moses Mbua, a high school senior and member of Kids for the Boundary Waters.

 

 
 
January 21, 2025

“The Boundary Waters is America’s most visited – and our most threatened – Wilderness. The countdown to an all-but-certain and unprecedented revocation of Biden’s historic mining ban in the Boundary Waters watershed has begun. The robust record of science, law, public opinion, and economics is clear – copper mining does not belong on the doorstep of one of America’s most iconic landscapes. Rep. McCollum’s Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act is crucial and common sense legislation to secure these lasting protections. This bill ensures that this beloved and long-protected place remains intact while upholding Northeastern Minnesota’s economic vitality and way of life,” said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters 

January 20, 2025

The American people don’t want the most toxic industry, sulfide-ore copper mining, on the doorsteps of the most visited Wilderness Area in the nation – 70% of Minnesotans support a ban on this kind of toxic mining in the Boundary Waters headwaters.

January 17, 2025

On Wednesday, E&E News by POLITICO reported that House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman plans to fast-track mining projects, with the Twin Metals project in Minnesota topping his list. This move reinforces the new administration’s clear agenda to dismantle protections for the entire Boundary Waters watershed—including undoing Biden’s historic 20-year mineral withdrawal, a goal they’ve vowed to pursue within their first “ten minutes” in office.

December 30, 2024

The death of President Jimmy Carter marks the loss of one of the Boundary Waters’ most historic champions. President Carter’s leadership was instrumental in protecting this treasured Wilderness. On October 21, 1978, he signed the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act into law—a landmark achievement for America’s most visited Wilderness.

 

 

November 15, 2024

Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW), the founder and lead organization of Save the Boundary Waters, concluded an administrative law evidentiary trial called a “contested case hearing” (“the Hearing”) before Minnesota Administrative Law Judge Megan McKenzie. The Hearing concluded mid-afternoon on Wednesday, November 13th

Mar 27, 2025
The Timberjay

A March 20 executive order signed by President Donald Trump establishes mining of minerals as the highest priority use of federal lands, and that could eventually lead to mining operations within federal wilderness areas and even national parks.

Mar 26, 2025
Field & Stream

Leaders from Trout Unlimited and Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters weigh in on the potential impacts of President Trump's Executive Order fast-tracking mining on public lands


 

Mar 21, 2025
MINNPOST

An executive order Trump signed late Thursday gives his administration emergency powers to prioritize mining on public lands, which could include the Superior National Forest, a watershed for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Mar 21, 2025
Outdoor Life

The latest order would also subsidize mining companies while reducing public input to reopen past projects — including a mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Mar 5, 2025
MPR News

“We have a record of glad handing and a sort of good old boy network doing favors for each other in rooms,” said Sen. Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth. “That has to stop like we have to get really serious about protecting our water, especially now.”

Mar 1, 2025
MPR News

President Donald Trump is taking a step toward granting the U.S. mining industry’s biggest wishes by singling out one metal as a focus of his domestic minerals policy: copper.

Feb 27, 2025
The Timberjay

Proponents of expanded protections for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from the effects of sulfide-based mining are taking issue with the region’s only remaining DFL lawmaker, Sen. Grant Hauschild, of Hermantown.

Feb 24, 2025
The Wilderness Society

Early orders could threaten iconic landscapes, including millions of acres of wildlife habitat and migration corridors.

Feb 19, 2025
Duluth News Tribune

From the column: "Regrettably, we have been reminded once again that our public land estate requires constant vigilance and must never be taken for granted."

Feb 18, 2025
The Minnesota Star Tribune

Allowing mining near the cherished wilderness won’t help any future bid for statewide office.

VIDEOS & WEBINARS

(Scroll down for webinars)

Short video celebrating the life of Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who fought fervently to protect Minnesota’s Boundary Waters from toxic mining. 

Watch the entire "Boundary Waters Traverse" film! On May 22, 2021 Alex Falconer ran over 110 miles in 38 hrs 15 mins and 3 seconds, through the heart of the Boundary Waters completing the first known attempt to trail run the "Boundary Waters Traverse”.

Patagonia's feature-length film - Public Trust. The film focuses on the Boundary Waters and other high-profile, threatened public lands across the United States.

In Deep Water: A Fight to Save the Boundary Waters The Campaign produced a mini-documentary to educate new audiences on the threat of sulfide-ore copper mining on the edge of the Boundary Waters.

Kids for the Boundary Waters is an organization run by youth with the goal of building a community of young wilderness advocates.

KEEN Story Camp was an event that included a public open-mic session on the edge of the Wilderness, where attendees canoed the lakes during the day and told stories around the fire at night.

A stunning short film that follows Dave and Amy Freeman's year spent in the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Bear Witness shares Dave and Amy's experiences in all seasons and how the Freemans dedicated themselves to this expedition in an effort to raise awareness about the threats to the Boundary Waters from proposed sulfide-ore copper mining. 

A stunning short film that follows Dave and Amy Freeman's year spent in the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Bear Witness shares Dave and Amy's experiences in all seasons and how the Freemans dedicated themselves to this expedition in an effort to raise awareness about the threats to the Boundary Waters from proposed sulfide-ore copper mining. 

Covering 2,000 miles and crossing nine states, authors and National Geographic Adventurers of the Year Amy and Dave Freeman are biking from Ely, Minnesota, to Washington D.C. this spring to promote their new book, A Year in the Wilderness, and continue their efforts to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, one of our country’s most precious and expansive Wilderness areas.

A short documentary film centered around protecting the Boundary Waters. The film's focus is on the people who help spread appreciation for the land and carry on, in their own individual ways, the legacy of Sigurd Olson, a writer and conservationist who was responsible for the area's National Forest designation in 1978.

Follow and Subscribe to our video channels: YouTube & Vimeo

WEBINARS

Lease Cancelation Webinar - 1/27/22

Save the Boundary Waters Press Conference: Lease Cancelation - 1/26/2022

Issue 101 and the Path to Permanent Protection for the Boundary Waters - 9/3/2021

Fishing Webinar 5/5/2021

Saving the Boundary Waters: Stories About Runners and Kids Working to Protect America’s Most Visited Wilderness - June 2021

Bios for Press Use

The Campaign to Save The Boundary Waters welcomes media inquiries; email Libby@savetheboundarywaters.org