The Firegrate Review

The Boundary Waters has a long literary tradition. From the works of Sigurd Olson to Paul Gruchow to Helen Hoover, many writers have tried to capture the adventure, solitude and beauty of canoe country.

Now, it’s your turn.

This fall, the Friends will publish the first edition of a new chapbook, “The Firegrate Review,” and you are invited to submit your essays, stories, poems, and other written works.

As a collection of wilderness writings, the chapbook will be the perfect size to slip into your Duluth Pack for reading in the tent or around the fire.

Submissions up to 1,500 words in length will be considered, but writers are encouraged to keep submissions concise. Poems should be fifty lines or shorter.

The deadline for submissions is the end of the BWCAW permit season: September 30. Send your submissions to firegrate@friends-bwca.org or 401 North Third St. Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401. Contact greg@friends-bwca.org with any questions!

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Summer 2010 Newsletter

The Friends’ summer 2010 newsletter is now available (PDF). Friends members should have already received it in their mailboxes. If you’d like to support our work by becoming a member, click here. You’ll receive the newsletter four times a year.

This summer’s newsletter includes the following stories:

• Working for Wild Horizons (cell tower lawsuit)
• Message from Paul Danicic, executive director
• Good Films, Good Friends (Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival)
• 2009-2010 Legislative Update
• Sulfide Mining Media Canoe Trip
• North Country Trail Coming to the BWCAW
• Early Spring BWCAW Clean-up Trip Report
• Investing in Young Scholars – Vermilion Community College scholarship
• …and much more!

Click here to download the newsletter!

Cell phone tower construction near Boundary Waters halted until trial on merits

At a court hearing yesterday in Hennepin County District Court, AT&T Mobility (“AT&T”) agreed to stop construction of a proposed 450-foot telecommunications tower within 1.5 miles of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness until the Court conducts a full trial on the merits of the claim that the proposed tower would violate the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (“MERA”). A trial date has not been set, but is anticipated to occur in December.

On June 23, 2010, The Friends filed a lawsuit alleging that the proposed tower would violate the MERA. At yesterday’s hearing, the Court was set to hear the Friends’ motion for a temporary injunction to halt construction of the tower until the parties could conduct a full trial on whether the proposed tower violates the MERA. AT&T agreed to put the construction on hold in lieu of proceeding with the scheduled oral arguments that were to have taken place at yesterday’s hearing.

“We are very pleased that AT&T agreed to stop construction of the proposed tower. It has been our intent all along to find common ground with AT&T regarding the need to assess the tower’s environmental impact and consider alternatives. We remain hopeful that we can find a meaningful resolution with AT&T that will improve cell phone service for area residents,” said Paul Danicic, Executive Director of the Friends.

The proposed 450-foot tower will sit on an elevated ridge within 1.5 miles of the Boundary Waters and will loom approximately 600 feet above the surrounding wilderness landscape, a height that rivals some of the tallest skyscrapers in the Twin Cities. The tower will be illuminated day and night with strobe and beacon lighting, and will be visible for miles inside the wilderness area on several popular lakes, including Basswood, Fall, Ella Hall and South Farm Lakes. American Towers Inc. is also a defendant in the lawsuit.

Help shape the future of the BWCAW

Next week, high-ranking members of the Obama administration will be in Minneapolis to hear from Minnesotans about issues affecting our great outdoors and ideas for long-term conservation. This event is being led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and will focus on clean water. Please participate in the listening session and speak up for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness! The event is open to everyone, free registration is required.

Attend the event to tell these important decision-makers how important clean water, the BWCAW and healthy ecosystems are to you. Speak your mind about serious threats to the region, including the dangerous new sulfide mines proposed at the very edges of the wilderness. Remind our public officials that what happens in the Boundary Waters watershed can have serious impacts on the treasured wilderness.

Details:
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010
4:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Ted Mann Concert Hall
2128 Fourth St. South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
(Directions)

Breakout sessions will allow you the chance to make the case for the highest level of protection for the wilderness. We have put together a page of helpful talking points to use when talking about these issues. Click here to download (PDF). Of course, bringing your own ideas is what the event is all about, so feel free to speak your mind!

Whether or not you can make it to the listening session, you can still have a voice in this process. The “America’s Great Outdoors” website has an interactive tool for submitting your ideas, voting for ideas you like, and discussing issues. Please go to the website, create an account, and get involved in the discussion.

Please attend next Wednesday. Click here to register and for additional details.

Nick Coleman writes about cell tower lawsuit

Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman published a smart, thoughtful piece in the Sunday, July 11 newspaper about the Friends’ lawsuit against AT&T Mobility over a proposed 450-foot cell tower at the edge of the Boundary Waters.

In the column, the long-time Twin Cities writer eloquently described the organization’s position regarding the tower, the legal protections of wilderness, and the Friends’ desire to find a solution that can benefit local residents while protecting the integrity of the BWCAW.

The Friends haven’t taken a position against cell phone coverage in the wilderness area. They are arguing only that the plan for a cell tower on a ridge near Fall Lake (the height above the landscape would be about 600 feet) would create a visual intrusion on the wilderness and that they hope to convince Lake County and AT&T to consider alternatives that would serve local customers without changing the wilderness.

This is a reasonable position — one that can be supported by any lover of the woods and waters but that does not brush aside the legitimate interests of local residents. But in a shrill era of “drill, baby drill” (before the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, at any rate), when preservation of the environment is in danger of being swept aside, even reasonable positions can seem like radical ones. But, in the end, environmental groups like the Friends are conservative: Conservation is what they ask.

Keep reading “Connect the wilderness at what cost?“

More environmental review for PolyMet mine proposal

The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the PolyMet sulfide mine proposal in northeastern Minnesota needs more work before moving forward, the responsible government agencies recently announced.

Responding to EPA, Friends, citizens

Many of the areas that are expected to be addressed are concerns raised in February by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In a letter at that time, the EPA ranked the project’s draft EIS as unacceptable and inadequate and said the project should not move forward as proposed.

The EPA criticisms closely aligned with extensive comments submitted by the Friends and other groups. The agency found that the mine’s pollution and environmental threats would be severe and unacceptable and it said that not enough data had been gathered and analysis performed to even fully understand what the impacts would be.

In April and May, the Friends led a petition campaign calling on the agencies to heed the EPA advice and do more work on the environmental review before moving any further ahead. More than 2,000 signatures were sent to government officials calling for adequate environmental review.

Will include land exchange

One significant addition to the environmental review will be a proposed land exchange with the U.S. Forest Service. The proposed PolyMet mine site is on public land managed by the Superior National Forest. In order to start mining, PolyMet needs to acquire the land.

In 2008, Rep. James Oberstar and Sens. Klobuchar and Coleman introduced legislation seeking to circumvent usual processes and sell the 6,700 acres of public land outright. The Friends opposed the sale and it seems to have been abandoned. The company is now pursuing a land exchange. Because the entire mine proposal is based on the assumption PolyMet will acquire the land, review of such an exchange is essential to any environmental review.

The Forest Service has also increased its involvement in the review process, signing on as a co-lead agency with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Natural Resources. The EPA is also being brought in as a cooperating agency.

“Damage deposit” information

Other work includes developing project alternatives that would cause less environmental degradation and including more information about financial assurance. It is unclear if the financial assurance will meet standards in proposed legislation at the Minnesota state capitol this spring.

The EPA criticisms of the mine proposal and the environmental review were widely-discussed at four committee hearings in the Minnesota legislature in March. A bill that sought to strengthen “damage deposit” rules did not move out of committee; among its provisions, the legislation would have required financial assurance to be included in draft EISs.

However, the level of detail that will provided about financial assurance is still unclear. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers told the Pioneer Press, “We will talk about different mechanisms. There may be a range of dollar amounts that will be provided, but that is yet to be fully fleshed out.”

Devil in the details

The decision to create the supplement draft EIS is a positive step, but the review process still demands close attention by citizens, conservation organizations and policy-makers. Because of the severity of the faults in the draft EIS, a significant amount of work needs to be done, including field work gathering additional data.

The public will have additional opportunities to be involved, including a comment period and at least one public meeting.