Boundary Waters Canoe Area Protected! • PaddlingLight.com

We received good news today about the fight to protect the Boundary Waters from toxic sulfide mining pollution.

They completed the two-year study about this type of mining and how it could affect the BWCA. They found that due to the potential harm that there was justification for a twenty-year moratorium on federal lands within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area’s watershed.

Maybe 20 years will be long enough for the mining companies to develop technology that would prevent this type of pollution. They haven’t been able to do it, yet. It’s the most toxic industry in the country, and there’s never been a sulfide mine around the world that hasn’t polluted. As another state learned, this type of mining has created lakes so toxic that when birds land on it, they die.

You can read more about it at the Washington Post. Here’s an unlocked article.

This is a good reason to celebrate, and to celebrate here’s my favorite photo from the Boundary Waters.