MPR’s Brett Neely reports on U.S. House passage of bill to swap land inside BWCA. The bill allows Minnesota to give 86,000 acres of school trust lands inside the Boundary Waters Wilderness to the federal government. In exchange, the federal government would give Minnesota lands currently controlled by the Forest Service in the surrounding Superior National Forest.
Before the state of Minnesota was even founded, thousands of acres of land were set aside to generate money for public schools. Many of those lands were eventually sold off, but a large chunk of the remaining land is locked inside the federally-protected Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Transcripts
text | pdf |
CATHY WURZER: Yesterday, the US House passed a bill that would make a swap official. Brett Neely has details.
BRETT NEELY: First-term Republican Chip Cravaack represents Northern Minnesota and introduced the legislation that was approved along narrow partisan lines, 225 to 189. That bill allows Minnesota to give 86,000 acres of school trust lands inside the Boundary Waters Wilderness to the federal government. In exchange, the feds will give Minnesota lands currently controlled by the Forest Service in the surrounding Superior National Forest. After that, Cravaack says the state can do what it wants with the land.
CHIP CRAVAACK: They can choose to sell the land. They can choose to mine the land. They can choose to lease the land. Whatever they choose to do will be up to the state on how they want to create revenue. But one thing is for certain, it must create revenue.
BRETT NEELY: Cravaack, who's running for re-election on a platform of bringing more mining jobs to his district, says this bill would boost the local economy and direct more funds to schools through mining and logging royalties on the transferred lands.
CHIP CRAVAACK: In my school district, there are 40 kids in a classroom. Our school district is down to four days a week. Last time I checked, they needed some money, and they'll take any help that they can get.
BRETT NEELY: In a spirited debate on the House floor, St. Paul Democrat Betty McCollum challenged the need for Cravaack's bill right now, even as residents, mining companies, state and federal officials, and environmental groups are in talks about what land should be transferred and whether usage restrictions should be placed on that land.
BETTY MCCOLLUM: There is a stakeholders group in Minnesota that is working to determine if the land proposal is fair and transparent. They're not at the table, folks.
BRETT NEELY: Attempts by McCollum and fellow Democrat Keith Ellison to amend the bill failed. A broad coalition of wilderness groups is concerned about measures in the legislation that would exempt the transferred lands from environmental review. Samantha Chadwick is a preservation advocate for Environment Minnesota.
SAMANTHA CHADWICK: The bill threatens to open the door for mining companies to conduct dangerous sulfide mining near the Boundary Waters and inside the Superior National Forest.
BRETT NEELY: Forest lands transferred from federal to state control would no longer be covered by many federal environmental laws, although Cravaack says state laws would provide plenty of protection.
CHIP CRAVAACK: Air protections still apply. Water protections still apply. Endangered Species Act, for example, will now be dependent on where the endangered species is.
BRETT NEELY: But Chisholm environmental activist Elanne Palcich says state regulators have gone too easy on the mining industry in the past.
ELANNE PALCICH: They've allowed them to have all these sulfates in the water and all this stuff in the air, which we didn't even realize until we started studying this sulfide mining.
BRETT NEELY: And she's worried that if significant mining gets underway in the area, it will be difficult to stop.
ELANNE PALCICH: Once you let a mining industry get started, there's no way to regulate it. It's like this train going down the tracks.
BRETT NEELY: Both of Minnesota's US senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, say they support a land exchange and are working on a companion bill to Cravaack's. But they haven't introduced the legislation yet, and with Congress in session for just a handful of days between now and the election, it appears that a resolution to the Boundary Waters land issue may have to wait another year. Brett Neely, Minnesota Public Radio News, Washington.