Reader’s view: BWCAW land swap will harm the environment for generations

As taken and interpreted from statements made in the media and debates, our federal senators and representative either don’t understand or underestimate the environmental consequences of the proposed Boundary Waters school trust land exchange, which passed the U.S. House as HR 5544 and now is being considered for companion legislation by the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken are blindly following the lead of the extreme conservative U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack. They would be deciding the fate of the environment in Northeastern Minnesota for the foreseeable future by setting this shortsighted precedent in land management. This is an existential issue for public health and natural habitat. But for them it seems to involve only economics and politics. Public health and the environment are only “concerns” that will be managed “locally” once the EPA is marginalized to the point of being unable to protect our natural resources.

True progressives would not fold in the face of this tyranny. This land transfer could enable the pollution of our water, air and land in Northeastern Minnesota and in the Lake Superior watershed forever and could harm our children, not help them.

As mercury and toxic metals in our water and air increase, students’ test scores would decrease.

Sell the school trust lands in the BWCAW to the federal government and protect the public land in the Superior National Forest. Unfettered strip mining in the Superior National Forest would cause irreversible damage to the environment that sustains us.

LeRoger Lind

Two Harbors

Tags: readers views, opinion, editorials, environment, bwcaw, money, business, politics