Earthjustice, the environmental litigation group, announced a victory in the pristine Boundary Waters Wilderness Area of Northern Minnesota. After decades of activism, the Biden administration reversed Trump's revival of two sulfide mineral leases in the Wilderness that could have had catastrophic impacts on the water quality and wildlife habitat. Sulfide mining is particular pernicious since the mineral when brought to the surface reacts with the atmosphere to produce sulfuric acid and heavy metal leachates. These sources of toxic pollution posed a threat to the recreation based economy of Ely, MN and the wild rice farming by tribes in the area. The Forest Service said in a 2016 memo to the Bureau of Land Management that the risk posed by the reinstated leases to the only protected sub-boreal forest in the lower 48 was "unacceptable". The Boundary Waters are noted for their purity. Some 2000 pristine lakes dot the region along the Canadian border providing abundant water recreation opportunities. It is the home of the endangered gray wolf, Canadian lynx and long-eared bat.
