URGENT!

Northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness protects a million acres of lakes and forests stitched together by waterways. No roads. No engines. No buildings. Just paddles dipping noiselessly into clear lakes, loons calling at dusk, and generations of people learning what real quiet sounds like—what true solitude feels like.

Right now, it’s at the very center of our biggest and most urgent public lands battle outside of Alaska. Nowhere else do we have as much to lose as in the Boundary Waters.

The danger comes from a little-known congressional measure called H.J.Res. 140. Although the bill was introduced to the House only a week ago, it’s already scheduled for a hearing tomorrow, Tuesday, January 20. The full House could vote on it as soon as Wednesday.

What's at stake?

If passed, it would open the door to sulfide-ore copper mining in the very landscape where the Boundary Waters’ lakes and rivers begin. The mining company involved is Twin Metals, which is part of a Chilean mining conglomerate.

Pollution from the Twin Metals mine would severely impact large parts of the pristine Boundary Waters, America's most visited Wilderness Area. It would completely destroy Voyageurs National Park, which lies further downstream.

If Congress is willing to roll back protections here, upstream of a world-class Wilderness and National Park, then no public land with (nearby) mineral potential is truly safe.