A conservation easement agreement will keep some 76,000 acres of northern Minnesota forest protected for sustainable forestry, wildlife habitat, and recreation, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced yesterday.
Atikokan, the northern gateway community to Quetico Provincial Park, is considering what steps to take to become gold mining town. Osisko Mining expects to have a gold mine in the Atikokan area, perhaps by 2015.
Northeastern Minnesota’s St. Louis County has commissioned a study to determine how best to keep private land in the county from becoming publicly owned.
A ruling by a lower court dismissing a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club against the Forest Service over the Superior National Forest management plan has been upheld.
The Heart of the Continent Partnership, an association of land managers, researchers, government officials, and local stakeholders, is seeking to add representatives of the region’s communities to its collaborative effort.
The advocacy group Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness claims that sulfide mine pollution is occurring at a 36-year-old mine site off of Spruce Road near the South Kawishiwi River just miles from the limits of the BWCAW.
In an agreement hammered out in a Minneapolis courtroom, AT&T has agreed to suspend construction of a controversial cell phone tower at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness until a trial determines its ultimate fate.
The lawsuit by the advocacy group Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness to halt construction of a 450-foot=high cellular communications tower near Ely has recently prompted commentary from those who hail and oppose the effort.
State and federal agencies will rewrite the the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for PolyMet Mining’s proposed copper-nickel and precious metals mine near Babbitt. The rewrite comes after the federal Environmental Protection Agency deemed the initial Draft EIS “Environmentally Unsatisfactory-Inadequate.”
With an estimated $1 trillion worth of copper and other precious metals buried beneath the surface along the South Kawishiwi River near the southern border of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the tangle over mineral development and natural resource protection appears likely to continue well beyond those surrounding the PolyMet copper-nickel mine in nearby Babbitt.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may redo their Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the PolyMet copper-nickel mining operation proposed near Babbitt. The original Draft EIS was declared “environmentally unsatisfactory-inadequate” by the federal Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year.
The dream of a Lake Vermilion State Park is now a reality after the State of Minnesota and U.S. Steel Corporation signed a deal yesterday that put 3,000 acres of company land along the picturesque lake under state ownership.
An advisory committee intended to to enhance local community collaboration with federal officials who manage the Superior National Forest will convene for the first time on June 11, the U.S. Forest Service announced recently.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, in cooperation with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, has announced the locations along the U.S./Canada border in Northeastern Minnesota that will be closed to fishing in the early spring.
Investors in PolyMet Mining Corporation are showing caution over possible delays in the development of the NorthMet copper-nickel and precious metals mining operation near Babbitt after criticisms of the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement by the EPA.
The Minnesota House of Representatives is considering a bill to tighten the financial assurances required by mining companies operating in the state, even though a companion bill in the state senate has been withdrawn.
As bonding to purchase land for the proposed Vermilion State Park was signed by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a St. Louis County official now wants the project to include private development.
A bill in the Minnesota State Senate which could have raised the financial assurance requirements for non-ferrous mining companies in the state was withdrawn by its sponsor after lengthy hearings in St. Paul.
Issues surrounding PolyMet Mining Company’s proposed copper-nickel and precious metals mining operation near Babbitt, reached the Minnesota state capitol yesterday at a hearing of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
Next week, the Minnesota Senate’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee will hear testimony on issues surrounding PolyMet Mining Company’s proposed NorthMet copper-nickel and precious metals mine.