BREAKING: Republicans Vote to Poison Boundary Waters – America's Most Beloved Wilderness

Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted to revoke protections for the Boundary Waters watershed and allow a toxic foreign-owned mine to go forward.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this. The Senate just voted to overturn the 20-year mineral withdrawal protecting 225,504 acres of the Boundary Waters watershed from sulfide-ore copper mining. When Trump signs it, and he will, the withdrawal is dead.

And because this was done through the Congressional Review Act, no future president can issue a “substantially similar” protection without a new act of Congress. That's the CRA's poison pill. That was always the real game — not just opening the door to mining, but welding it open permanently.

This is a very dark day for public lands. It sets the precedent that any land protection in the United States — any withdrawal, any public land order — can be retroactively reclassified as a "rule" and erased by a simple majority vote. Grand Staircase-Escalante is next. They're already lining it up. Every protected landscape in this country just got less safe.

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Now What?

Now let me tell you what this vote does not do.

It does not approve the mine. It does not issue a single permit. It does not hand Twin Metals a congressional pass to proceed no matter what. But it does make the Boundary Waters watershed very vulnerable.

The Lawsuits

Next come the lawsuits. Save the Boundary Waters and a coalition of conservation and tribal organizations will challenge this in federal court. The legal argument is straightforward: a land withdrawal is not a "rule" under the Congressional Review Act. It never has been. The CRA defines a rule as an agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act. Land withdrawals are exercises of presidential authority under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. They are different things. They have always been different things. Republicans knew this, which is why they had to engineer a procedural fiction — having the Trump Interior Department re-submit a three-year-old action to Congress as if it were new — to make the clock work. That legal theory has never been tested in court. It's about to be.

The State

Even if the federal withdrawal is gone, Minnesota has its own authority over this mine. Twin Metals holds state mineral leases covering roughly 36 percent of the proposed ore body. The first and most critical of those leases — issued in 1990 — is up for review this year. Under its terms, the DNR can cancel the lease if Twin Metals hasn't actively mined and hasn't paid at least $100,000 in royalties in a single calendar year. After 35 years, they've done neither. They haven't mined a single ounce of ore. Friends of the Boundary Waters has argued that canceling this lease would be the first step in unwinding the others. Without that 36 percent of the ore body, the mine's economics fall apart. Minnesota isn't powerless here. The DNR has the authority. The question is whether the state has the courage to use it.

The DFL holds a one-seat majority in the Minnesota Senate. There are bills pending in the state legislature to permanently ban sulfide-ore copper mining in the Rainy River watershed and to prohibit the state from issuing mining permits in the area. Every single Minnesota Senate seat, every House seat, and the governor's office are on the ballot in November. This just became the defining issue of that election.

The Permits

Even with the federal withdrawal gone, Twin Metals can’t break ground tomorrow. They still need a complete mine plan. They still need federal and state environmental review under NEPA and Minnesota law. They still need permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA, the Minnesota DNR, and the Pollution Control Agency. That process takes years. It involves public comment. It involves science. And it involves the courts — because every one of those permits will be challenged.

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What You Can Do

They’re counting on you giving up. That’s the strategy. It always has been. Exhaust the opposition. Stack the losses. Make it feel inevitable so people stop fighting.

Don’t.

This fight has been going on for over a decade. The people defending the Boundary Waters — Save the Boundary Waters, the tribal nations whose treaty rights are at stake, the outfitters and guides whose livelihoods depend on clean water, the Americans who cherish what the BWCAW provides — have never stopped. They’re not stopping now. Neither am I.

Here’s what you can do right now:

Support the legal fight. Save the Boundary Waters will need resources for the litigation ahead. Give what you can.

If you live in Minnesota, tell state legislators to pass permanent state protections for the Rainy River watershed and to review Twin Metals' state mineral lease. The DFL has a one-seat majority. Every call matters.

Remember who did this. A bare majority of senators voted to hand your wilderness to a foreign mining company and its copper to China. In 2026 and beyond, make sure they answer for it.

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Thanks for reading. Until next time,

-Jim