Opinion by David A. Lien
Duluth News Tribune: 8/6/25

In 1909, Spanish-American War veteran and Medal of Honor recipient President Theodore Roosevelt established the Superior National Forest “for the use and benefit of the people.” Since then millions of us have traveled to its Boundary Waters — the largest wilderness east of the Rockies and north of the Everglades — to camp, hike, hunt, fish, and paddle. It’s one of the world’s 50 greatest destinations, according to National Geographic , and is known as “America’s Wilderness.”

Bill Rom, a U.S. Navy veteran, opened Canoe Country Outfitters in Ely in 1946 and became a leader in the fight for the federal Wilderness Act, which passed in 1964. He conceived of the outfitting business while serving in the Navy during World War II as an antidote to his piercing homesickness for northern Minnesota’s wild lake country. Both Roosevelt and Rom were vilified for advocating on behalf of our wild public lands, waters, and wildlife, but we have them (and many others) to thank for our great public-lands estate.

Today’s veterans are following in their footsteps, defending the Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from a proposal by Chilean billionaires (Antofagasta) to mine sulfide-ore deposits in the region. This sulfide-mining proposal threatens the very lifeblood of the Boundary Waters and northern Minnesota: clean water.
“Every sulfide mine (in) a water-rich environment, like Minnesota, has contaminated surface and/or groundwater with toxic acid mine drainage: 100 percent failure rate,” I wrote in a May 2024 News Tribune commentary . “A foreign-owned mining company, Antofagasta of Chile, doing business in Minnesota as Twin Metals, is looking to build a copper-ore sulfide mine upstream from the Boundary Waters near Ely.”

“We’re at a pivotal moment in the history of conservation and management of our public lands and waters. The calls to sell off public lands are no longer mere whispers or rumors,” Backcountry Hunters and Anglers editor Zack Williams wrote in spring in the Backcountry Journal. “Those advocating for resource extraction in irreplaceable wild landscapes, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Boundary Waters, are becoming increasingly vocal.”

“For those involved in Backcountry Hunters and Anglers’ Armed Forces Initiative (AFI), these aren’t just parcels on a map. They’re hallowed ground,” Backcountry Hunters and Anglers AFI Coordinator Bryan Jones, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, wrote in a letter objecting to a proposed sell-off of more than 3 million acres of public lands.
The letter was sent to all 541 members of Congress in June, arguing some of what’s at risk if we allow billionaire buzzards to invade and sully our last pristine waterways and wildlands."