President Donald Trump has worked aggressively todismantle the environmental legacyof his predecessor Barack Obama since taking office in 2017. The latest example is a mining project that could affect the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States: theBoundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which stretches over a million acres in theSuperior National Forestin remote northern Minnesota.
This拨打，钓鱼和露营的桶列表目的地含有超过1,200英里的独木舟路线，其中百湖和溪流中，每年绘制约250,000名游客。刚刚西南部是大型金属矿床 - 一部分Minnesota的铁距离，主要的矿区since the mid-1800s。
For十多年来a company called双胞胎金属一直在寻求许可来构建和运行一个联合国吗derground copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum mine there. Opponents, including local residents, conservation groups and outdoor businesses, argue that this operation could释放有毒污染物这将洗到边界水域，毗邻公园，中毒野生动物和污染土壤。
The Obama administration opposed the project and declined to renew expiring leases for Twin Metals in 2016. But the Trump administration授予新租约2019年5月。作为一名学者研究公共土地管理，我认为这争议是对环境保护的经典辩论与就业创造，带着扭曲：有一个令人信服的经济论证来保护。
短期和长期福利
美国国家森林进行了多次用途，包括伐木，牲畜放牧，生物多样性，空气和水质和娱乐。将国家森林的一部分作为荒野的一部分是禁止其中一些用途的重要一步。这意味着，用1964年的语言荒野法案, that "there shall be no commercial enterprise and no permanent road within any wilderness area," nor any motorized vehicles that would mar the land’s "primeval character," its "outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation."
The Boundary Waters first received protection as a roadless wilderness area in1926年在森林服务的第一个景观建筑师的推荐，亚瑟卡特哈特。“在卓越的国家森林中发现了一个突出的特色，这些森林不存在于任何其他国家拥有的财产中，”Carhart断言。“这是一种湖泊类型的娱乐。优越的是毫无疑问的one of the few great canoe countries of the world。"
An overwhelming majority of Minnesotans, including residents of the northern counties, want to protect the Boundary Waters and the jobs and revenues that the wilderness generates.
这只是second officially protected U.S. wilderness area当时。今天，明尼苏达州东北户外娱乐经济产生了多$900 million in annual revenues and sustains over 17,000 jobs。
2016年研究估计边界水仅占1,000 jobs and $77 million in annual economic output。"Outdoor recreation is an export industry for northeastern Minnesota, providing for stable employment and sustainable jobs year after year," the report observed.
For comparison, Twin Metals projects that its mine wouldoperate for 25 years并产生超过2,250个工作岗位。2018年评估了这两种选择的哈佛大学经济学家得出结论，超过20年，保护边界水域将提供更大的经济效益，而不是批准矿井。
拟议矿井的批评者担心，因为采矿产生大量废物岩石。这些岩石中的金属可以产生高度酸性的径流pollutes rivers, streams and groundwater。
环境宣传组织陆地工厂发表的15枚美国硫化物矿石铜矿的研究发现，14个项目经历了偶然的释放显着的水污染。由于边界水域存在于庞大的互联湖泊和流网络中，因此对鱼类，野生动物和荒野价值观的有毒采矿污染可能是灾难性的。
Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Minnesotans, including residents of the northern counties, want to保护边界水域and the jobs and revenues that the wilderness generates. On the other side, unions, business organizations and当地民选官员争论矿井会boost the regional economy在为绿色经济转型和我们的国家安全的过渡至关重要的战略矿物质的同时。“
Fast-tracking development
挖掘提案通常是如此，涉及若干机构。内部部门的土地管理局控制美国公共土地上的所有矿物质。因为400英亩的拟议矿山的1,156英亩足迹是within the Superior National Forest, the bureau needs the Forest Service’s consent to approve the project.
In 2016, after analyzing the mine’s potential impacts, the Forest Service refused to consent to the lease, and the Obama administration imposed a 20-year moratorium on mining near the Boundary Waters. Things changed a year later, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, when his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, rented a District of Columbia mansion from aChilean businessman named Andrónico Luksic。
Luksic是Antofagasta的首席执行官，这是一个拥有的双胞胎金属的智利集团。在几周内，高级美国官员正在与安托法加斯塔领导人会面并重新审视租约。公司代表和吉什人的发言人说no link between the rental and action on the mine，但伦理专家们甚至表示appearance of a conflict令人不安。
行政官员试图削弱森林服务矿产租赁权across its 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. On June 12, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, whose agency includes the Forest Service, issued a memo that directed the Forest Service to "streamline processes and identify new opportunities to increase America’s energy dominance andreduce reliance on foreign countries for critical minerals。" And the agency has signaled its willingness to do so.
生态价值
特朗普已声称信用竞选小径，以节省明尼苏达州的开采经济从窒息环境监管。“我们的矿工回到了工作，工资增加了50％的工资......但如果[乔]拜登赢得铁场，那么我们会永远关闭，你知道，”他告诉audience in Mankato, Minnesota, on Aug. 17.
几天后，特朗普政府hit the pause buttonon another large mining project: the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, which critics assert wouldpollute Bristol Bay，几个有利可图的野生鲑鱼渔业的网站。据报道，当唐纳德特朗普Jr.和其他着名保守派之后，政府扭转了课程avid hunters and anglers反对它。
While jobs and economic impacts loom large in this debate, they aren’t the only issues at stake. At an国际生物多样性峰会9月30日，联合国官员发出了诉讼，以保护自然免于退化。在生物多样性下降“人类历史上前所未有的房价，对人和我们的星球产生不断增长的影响，”他们专门指出，大约85％的全球湿地已经失去了发展，35 percent of that totaldisappearing between 1970 and 2015.
这使得边界水域有1,000个冰川挖洞，既有遗物，又为明尼苏达人，裔美国人和地球的机会。
