“These exquisite areas of environmental magnificence should be protected, should be there for all Americans,
for the next generation.” – Vice President Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale passed away April 19 at his home in Minneapolis. An elder statesman of Minnesota politics, he was involved in protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Voyageurs National Park, and other natural places throughout this career.
Environmental protection was one of the causes Mondale championed while serving in various public offices. Mondale served as Minnesota attorney general from 1960 to 1964, U.S. Senator from 1964 to 1976, vice president to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981, and Ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996. His environmental efforts included working as a chief sponsor of the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which included Minnesota and Wisconsin’s St. Croix River. Mondale joined the Senate in 1965, two years after the Wilderness Act was passed. He also vigorously supported protection of what would become Minnesota’s only National Park and significant Wilderness Area.
An early voice for Voyageurs
In 1967, Mondale led the way among Minnesota’s elected officials in advocating for the creation of Voyageurs National Park, including Rainy, Namakan, and Kabetogama Lakes. The National Park Service reports no other major state officeholder had spoken in favor of the idea, when Mondale addressed the annual gathering of the Minnesota Conservation Association in Duluth on September 16, 1967.
At the time, timber companies and others were arguing for putting the park on Lac La Croix, in what was then the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Mondale rejected that proposal, and explained why its ultimate location was preferable.
“Last week John Wernham, Forest Supervisor, stated 15 impressive reasons why the Lac La Croix Area should remain a part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He points out, among other things, that Lac La Croix portion of the BWCA has an especially high value as a part of the Boundary Waters Program and that the creation of a national park in that area would for many reasons be ‘a crippling blow to a less valuable and smaller BWCA.’ There is only one BWCA, in the country and it is in Minnesota and each year it is gaining tourist attraction.”
Mondale introduced legislation to create Voyageurs in 1968 and 1969. The legislation authorizing Voyageurs near International Falls would be passed in 1971.
Boundary Waters booster
In 1970, the prospect of copper-nickel mining near the Boundary Waters drove Mondale to speak in Congress against the idea.
“The Boundary Waters Canoe Area has escaped commercialism through the years. Now, however, the threat of mining has arisen within the area. I am very much disturbed over this prospect, because it would be completely inconsistent with the history and purpose of this matchless region. It is apparent that many Minnesota citizens are also upset over the possibility of exploitation in this wilderness area.”
The mining proposals were ultimately dropped. But the same deposits are attracting renewed interest today, and Mondale spoke out against them in the past decade, as well.
Mondale reflected on the effort to fully protect the Boundary Waters, which would happen with the 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act, in his memoir, The Good Fight:
“As the Boundary Waters dispute unfolded, I found the most effective political strategy was just to listen. Where we could grandfather people in—let them keep their cabin or their resort for their lifetime—we tried that. Where we could delay the implementation of some rule, give people time to prepare and adapt, we tried that.
“But at some point you simply had to take a deep breath, jump in, and vote the right way.”
After the wilderness was partially protected by the 1964 Wilderness Act, there was disagreement about whether long-term residents like Dorothy Molter should be allowed to remain living there. Mondale was reportedly one of the people who sent a letter supporting the idea of letting her and Benny Ambrose live out their days in their remote homes.
Mondale became vice president to Jimmy Carter in 1976, leaving the Senate. He is remembered for dramatically changing the role of the vice president from historical irrelevance to a dynamic and powerful position. While serving in the White House, he helped secure passage of the contentious Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act, which essentially extended wilderness protection to the full area.
Rip Rapson, who worked for Congressman Don Fraser, a chief advocate of the BWCAW Act, shared his memories of Mondale this week in a blog post on the Kresge Foundation’s website, where he is now president.
“The Carter Administration would become deeply engaged in the next assignment I was given by Fraser: advancing a bill to extend full wilderness protection to the one-million-acre lakeland wilderness called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), on Minnesota’s northern border. Over the next two years, Mondale and his staff would stay deeply engaged to ensure that the intense political infighting that attended the bill’s progress didn’t derail our success.”
Ultimately, the BWCAW Act passed in 1978, removing most remaining motors, resorts, logging, and mining threats in the 1.1 million acre wilderness.
An advocate to the end
In the last decade, Mondale again spoke out several times about the risks of pollution from new copper mine proposals, and the need to protect wilderness. He published several commentaries in newspapers to make the case for blocking new mines.He joined with Teddy Roosevelt V, the great-grandson of former president Teddy Roosevelt, for a July 2016 commentary in the New York Times.
“It is irresponsible to jeopardize an irreplaceable resource for something readily available elsewhere. President Theodore Roosevelt, who created Superior National Forest in 1909, implored Americans to ‘cherish’ the nation’s ‘natural wonders’ as a ‘sacred heritage for your children and your children’s children.’
“Do not, he continued, ‘let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.’
“Conservative thinking dictates that we manage the Boundary Waters under the ‘precautionary principle.’ If we err, it must be on the side of environmental safety. We must risk no harm to a pristine environment.”
They closed by calling on then president Barack Obama to enact a 20-year moratorium on new mines. Obama took that step a few months later, ordering the Forest Service to study whether mining could be done safely in the area, and if a moratorium was warranted. Obama officials also declined to renew Twin Metals’ mineral leases, which the company claimed continued to be valid despite first being issued in 1966. The following year, Mondale published a commentary in the Star Tribune.
“Minnesotans understand that we cannot afford to get this wrong. Will we continue Minnesota’s commitment that began more than a century ago and take steps to ensure that the Superior remains a healthy multiuse national forest? Or will we instead allow the destruction of many thousands of acres of this beloved public land, upstream from the Boundary Waters, by permitting a single-use industrial hard-rock mining district, with the inevitable acid mine drainage that would seriously harm aquatic ecosystems downstream? The watershed of the Boundary Waters is simply the wrong place for this kind of mining.”
In 2018, Mondale published a piece in the Duluth News Tribune, pointing out that Minnesotans of all political persuasions support Boundary Waters protection and oppose mines that risk polluting the wilderness.
“Over the last three years, as the debate over sulfide-ore copper mining near the Boundary Waters has intensified, something out of the ordinary has happened: The views of independents, Republicans, and Democrats have coalesced around the need to protect the Boundary Waters – not only because it’s a priceless natural wonder but also because it is one of the biggest and most sustainable economic engines in Northeastern Minnesota.”
At age 91, he had recently traveled to a remote lake in Ontario for fishing, including a seven-hour drive and a short flight.
On Sunday, the Star Tribune editorial board published a commentary that cited Mondale’s views, focused on protecting the Boundary Waters. The writers commended the recent action by Senator Tina Smith to push the Biden administration to finish the moratorium study.
“Smith’s timely leadership reflects the importance that Minnesotans put on safeguarding the watery northern Minnesota wilderness from potential mining pollution. It also honors Mondale’s environmental protection legacy and suggests that that this vital work will not flag in his absence.”
Today, four prominent Boundary Waters advocates published a counterpoint, saying truly honoring Mondale would mean blocking copper-nickel mining anywhere in northern Minnesota. Former governor Arne Carlson and two former Minnesota House members joined Chris Knopf in asking the state to apply the same standards to both PolyMet and Twin Metals.
“If we are to truly honor his life’s work, we must, once and for all, honestly come forth and acknowledge that both proposed mining projects, Twin Metals and PolyMet, pose the same mining risks and clearly endanger Minnesota’s most cherished physical asset, its pristine waters. This state cannot and must not place these waters at risk.”
A long-lasting legacy
Mondale has been memorialized by presidents and many others in the days following his passing. Rep. Betty McCollum, who has championed Boundary Waters protection in the House of Representatives, spoke on the House floor to remember a mentor and colleague:
“His authorship of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968 was a watershed moment in the environmental movement, bringing much-needed attention to these beautiful but threatened rivers across the country, including the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He was also among the first and most steadfast champions for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, because he understood that our biodiversity and clean water require permanent protection.”
She and other members of Minnesota’s delegation also introduced a resolution honoring his memory which was passed by the body.
Links:
- Protect Minnesota’s Boundary Waters – By Walter F. Mondale and Theodore Roosevelt IV – New York Times
- Walter Mondale: We can’t afford to get the mining-vs.-land-protection equation wrong – Star Tribune
- National View: Minnesotans of all politics uniting to protect BWCAW – Duluth News Tribune
- Vice President Walter Mondale: Protect the Boundary Waters – Minnesota Reformer
- Eighty Years in the Making: A Legislative History of Voyageurs National Park – Fred T. Witzig – National Park Service
- Rapson: Walter Mondale was ‘a public figure of such transcendent decency and compassion’ – Kresge Foundation
- Walter Mondale – Environment and Conservation – University of Minnesota Law Library