ST. PAUL, Minn. — Last Thursday, March 20, President Trump signed an executive order instructing his cabinet to open up vast swaths of federal lands to mining operations. This includes the Secretary of Interior, which oversees the United States’ national parks and monuments.
The order gives his administration emergency powers to prioritize environmentally hazardous mining on public lands, which could include the Superior National Forest, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Last month, the Trump administration fired thousands of public servants in the National Park Service – making it harder, if not impossible, to maintain our national parks and monuments, and signaling the administration’s intent to open up federal land for corporate leasing.
This comes at a time when the Trump administration is undertaking the biggest deregulation effort in history, rolling back rules on power plant and vehicle pollution, wastewater safety protections, air pollution rules that protect public health, and more. The possible closure of Duluth’s Environmental Protection Agency research lab – a nation-leader in environmental toxicology – also brings grave concerns for the health of Minnesota’s natural ecosystems.
Senator Steve Cwodzinski (DFL-Eden Prairie) – co-author of legislation to protect the Minnesota’s Boundary Waters – released the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s order:
“From the beautiful North Shore, to the roaring Mississippi River, to our 10,000 lakes – Minnesotans overwhelmingly want to protect our national parks and federal lands. Whether it’s gutting environmental protections that preserve our natural resources, rolling back pollution control laws that protect public health, or the prioritization of profits over environmental health, these moves by the Trump administration are deeply troubling.
“The Boundary Waters are Minnesota’s national treasure. The crown jewel of our state is already priceless and invaluable as it is. Minnesotans don’t want to sell it to the highest bidder. Polluting the natural ecosystem with hazardous mining chemicals will cause irreparable harm to the complex, delicate relationships between wildlife, plants, lakes, soil, rivers and groundwater. While multinational corporations will rake in profits, Minnesotans and visitors from across the country will pay the price. I urge my colleagues to support our efforts to safeguard the Boundary Waters from these dangerous actions.”
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