From the column: "In the water world that is northern Minnesota, one thing you can count on is that any sulfide-mine proposal is also a watershed-ruining disaster in waiting." David A. Lien   In October, I joined a group of hunters, anglers, and others for an annual Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness trip. On Bald Eagle Lake, we noted the remarkable comeback of trumpeter swans, counting 37 in one bay. Although we didn’t encounter any other paddlers until our fifth day, the Boundary Waters ...

News for Immediate ReleaseJan. 26, 2022Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, mckalip@backcountryhunters.org          Lukas Leaf, SFBW, 612-270-6805, lukas@sportsmenbwca.org  WASHINGTON – A broad coalition of hunters and anglers today applauded an announcement by the Department of the Interior to cancel two federal hardrock mineral leases located in the Superior National Forest within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed, citing the importance of this move to sustaining the ...

News for Immediate ReleaseOct. 22, 2021Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, mckalip@backcountryhunters.orgMISSOULA, Mont. – Following notice from the White House that Martha Williams has been nominated as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers President and CEO Land Tawney offered this response:“A more knowledgeable, smart and dedicated leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be hard to find,” said Tawney. “Martha Williams has spent a ...

This Public Lands Month, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and our partners at Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters are highlighting our work on behalf of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Wildfires closed the BWCA and surrounding areas to visitation this summer and showed the massive impact the Boundary Waters has on tourism and what happens when access to the area is restricted. Learn what you can do today to ensure future generations of hunters and anglers have access to the ...

By Sam Lungren, Backcountry Journal editor This piece was published in the Fall 2018 issue of Backcountry Journal. Since this article was published, the Biden administration has begun their reconsideration of the previous administration’s decision to extend leases for copper mining in the Superior National Forest upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In August 2021, President Biden's Secretary of Agriculture told the public that he was waiting for a legal opinion from ...