On April 16, the Senate passed a resolution that paves the way for a Chilean mining company to create a copper and nickel mine just miles outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. Permanent heavy metal contamination of this watershed is highly likely and would extend into Canada’s Quetico Provincial Park.
My dad was a nature lover and fishing devotee who spent two weeks in the Boundary Waters or Quetico nearly every year from the time he was a boy scout until he began using a wheelchair in his 70s. He took me and my siblings on our first trip to the Quetico weeks after I graduated from college in 1989. After two days of canoeing and portaging our gear overland from lake to lake, we reached Sarah Lake, our home base. The beauty of its sparkling waters has stayed with me ever since. Sitting by the fire one day, we witnessed a Moose cow and her calf walk through our campsite not more than 10 feet away. Another day we watched a turtle dig a nest and lay her eggs in the sandy soil feet from where we were sitting. Without watches or any other way to connect to civilization, we learned to tell time by where the sun was in the sky. On a second trip the following year, we were finally eating our fish dinner at 2 a.m. — after a sunset fishing expedition where we navigated home by moonlight. I learned to filet a fish for the first time, and then we were treated to an extraordinary show of shimmering pink and green northern lights.
In loving memory of my dad, and out of my own deep love for the Boundary Waters-Quetico watershed, I encourage you to learn more about what you can do: Minnesota can still use its permitting authority to stop this mine, so please ask anyone you know in Minnesota to write their state legislators; you can also donate to organizations such as Save the Boundary Waters. This pristine wilderness can still be saved.
Jennifer Hall-Witt
Hadley