Rep. McCollum’s work to protect Boundary Waters Canoe Area is honored by Wilderness Society

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2019 ----- For her efforts to prevent mining next to America’s most-visited wilderness area, The Wilderness Society honored Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) for her leadership.

The inaugural “Too Wild to Drill” award was presented to Rep. McCollum last week by Wilderness Society Governing Council member Theodore Roosevelt, IV.  As chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment, McCollum has worked tirelessly to protect the Boundary Waters and preserve its health and beauty for future generations.

“For years, Representative McCollum has fought to protect this national treasure from reckless mining,” said Drew McConville, Senior Managing Director for Government Relations at The Wilderness Society. “Mining pollution here would lead to tragic and senseless degradation of a place valued by so many people in Minnesota and across the country.”

In 2015, she introduced the National Park and Wilderness Waters Protection Forever Act, which would have protected the Boundary Waters from mining and impacts of mining on the federal lands within the Rainy River basin.

Rep. McCollum has continued her fight to protect the Boundary Waters. She included in a fiscal year 2020 appropriations report instructions to the U.S. Forest Service to complete a scientific study on the impact of sulfide-ore copper mining in the Superior National Forest, where the Boundary Waters is located. The instructions would halt the mineral leasing until the study is finished and presented to Congress.  The mining study, which had been underway, was abruptly canceled by the Trump administration in 2018. 

The administration recently renewed two controversial mining leases for Twin Metals Minnesota, a mining company owned by Antofagasta, a Chilean conglomerate.

The Wilderness Society, founded in 1935, is the leading conservation organization working to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. With more than one million members and supporters, The Wilderness Society has led the effort to permanently protect 111 million acres of wilderness and to ensure sound management of our shared national lands. www.wilderness.org.