Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW) is leading the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters.

This is a national endeavor to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from the effects of sulfide-ore mining.  Money raised by NMW on Give to the Max Day will help fund the Campaign.

The Boundary Waters Wilderness has inspired awe for generations.  Covering 1.1 million acres of spectacular woods and waterways along Minnesota’s border with Ontario, the Boundary Waters has for 50 years been the most-visited Wilderness Area in the United States.  It is also a crucial driver of the economy in Northeastern Minnesota, where tourism supports 18,000 jobs and $800 million in sales annually. 
 
Now this priceless landscape is jeopardized by a new and dangerous threat - sulfide-ore mining for copper, nickel, and other metals. This risky type of mining has never been permitted in Minnesota.  By-products of sulfide-ore mining include hazardous pollutants such as sulfuric acid and heavy metals, which could permanently ruin the pristine water and unspoiled forests of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. 

• The Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters is a growing coalition that currently includes 14 national and state organizations and is supported by a variety of conservation organizations, sportsmen and sportswomen groups, doctors and nurses, and Indian tribes.
• NMW has hired five staff members whose work is devoted entirely to the Campaign.
  
• NMW provides major support for Paddle to DC, a journey of 100 days undertaken by two Minnesotans, Dave and Amy Freeman. They are paddling and sailing from the Boundary Waters to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the Boundary Waters and the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Along the 2,000-mile journey, the Freemans are collecting signatures on their “floating petition” canoe to prevent sulfide-ore mining within the watershed of the Wilderness. Amy and Dave hope to present the petition to a representative of President Obama’s administration in early December 2014.
• NMW representatives, Ely-area business people, and other local residents have traveled to Washington DC four times over the last 12 months to meet with federal agency officials and others to make the case that sulfide-ore mining should be prohibited in the watershed of the Boundary Waters.  One result of our work is that to date the federal government has not renewed two mineral leases that expired in 2013 and that are at the heart of two deposits important to the proposed Twin Metals project.

Your contribution will help us grow the Campaign, continue to produce first-class scientific work to make our case, and do all the other work necessary to prevent sulfide-ore mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters.