The Friends came into existence in the second half of the 1970's when Don Fraser and Bruce Vento, cosponsored "the Fraser Bill," working with Bud Hienselman, the driving force behind the organization and the driving voice at the time for designation of the BWCA as wilderness.The "Boundary Waters Canoe Area," what the acronym stands for, now is protected wilderness, (per definition of the term under the 1964 Wilderness Act). It is motor free in the interior lakes, and has been so since the Fraser Bill modified as the "Burton-Vento" effort was passed in 1978. See this Google, Bud Hienselman; and this tribute to Vento.
This additional post on the nonferrous mining issue arose from an email to Crabgrass:
I came across a couple of your blog posts related to nonferrous mining (the financial assurance legislation and the PolyMet post) and just wanted to refer you to one additional resource on the issue. The organization I work for, the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, recently produced a 25-minute film about this issue and has made it available, along with our information and resources, at www.preciouswaters.org . I thought that if you hadn't come across that website and the film yet, you might be interested. Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for your thoughtful insights on this important issue!
Greg Seitz
Communications Director
Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness
(612) 332-9630
www.friends-bwca.org
"This is the most beautiful lake country on the continent. We can afford to cherish and protect it." - Sigurd Olson
Well, the family has a number of the original "canoe" posters, a Marschner map, and family activist roots reach back to the early days, the 1970's.
With this final NPR retrospective link, we transition from history of the past to mining history, of nonferrous sulfide ores, that is being made as I write.
The Friends' website had a caucus flyer online, but our precinct ended up passing a lengthier and more detailed statement, this link, so that later in the DFL process alternatives will be available. Whatever language prevails in the party platform, the Carlson bill is key (this link).
The Friends have online a report of their suggestions about the PolyMet draft environmental impact statement, here. There are two links in that item, one is a bad link but the other reaches the 64 page comments document, this link. (I expect the other link will be fixed a day or two or sooner after Seitz reads this post). The three page press release is online, here.
EVERYONE CARING ABOUT THE ISSUE SHOULD HAVE A LOOK AT THE FRIENDS' DETAILED COMMENTS.
Note: The Friends' three-page press release links to the DNR's page where you can read the entire DEIS, here, and to the already mentioned Friends' comments.
The Friends' website also gives this helpful link on the nonferrous mining issue and pending bills.
All readers are encouraged to inform themselves. Sulfide mining is a new thing, and if the mining is to be done, regulators have to be able to closely monitor and shut down any problematic activity, without need for securing a prior court order but instead with the mining interests obligated to seek judicial review of any regulatory activity they dislike or think onerous.
And there has to be an escrow. Without a financial leash, the animal will break and run as soon as the economically viable ore body is exhausted. The leash is needed. The mining firm is the animal, and the escrow is the leash. More complicated wording is not needed and a suitably strong leash will keep the animal where intended, without being an unnecessary restraint.