Cleveland-Cliffs & Northshore Mining, for shame

Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines,
It's dark as a dungeon, way down in the mines.

Nothing, but nothing, epitomizes the greed of big corporations more than the innocuous-sounding "surface mining" that is destroying Appalachia just to pull more tons of filthy coal from the mountains. Filthy coal, that sends megatons of carbon emissions into the air along with other pollutants, filthy coal that Minnesota Power burns at Taconite Harbor and releases into our airshed, filthy coal that could within a decade or two choke all of us trying to breathe. This we knew, or at least True knew.
But the merger of Cleveland-Cliffs with the Appalachian coal mining company with the Orwellian name of Alpha Natural Resources makes us accomplices. Last year alone in Kentucky, 50 million tons of coal were dredged from the surface of the Appalachian mountain range by, among other methods, cutting off the tops of the mountains and throwing them down into the valleys. The mountaintops are called "overburden." I shit you not.
Compare this with the five million tons of magnetite pellets being produced annually by Northshore Mining, a subsidiary of Babbitt-based Cleveland-Cliffs, now to be known as Cliffs Natural Resources, "A Leading Diversified Mining and Natural Resources Company."
It is time for residents of northern Minnesota to admit their culpability. The mountaintop leveling now supported by the merged company surely ranks right up their with the proposed Polymet copper-nickel mine that will create dead zones in our watershed.
Where is your outrage, North Shore citizens? What will you leave of earth, water and air to your children? Here's a link to the Duluth Tribune story that conveniently glosses over the devastating truth:

Duluth News Tribune | Cleveland-Cliffs announces merger with Appalachian coal company in $10 billion deal

Free press in Cook County?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
called the Bill of Rights, adopted in 1789

"Go now, and tell it on the mountains and in the cities. From your Web sites and laptops,tell it. From the street corners and the coffee house, tell it. On campus and at the mall, tell it. Tell it at the synagogue, sanctuary, and mosque. Tell it. Tell it where you can, when you can, and while you can. Tell America what we need to know--and we just might rekindle the patriot's dream."
-Bill Moyers, keynote address
National Conference on Media Reform
Minneapolis, June, 2008

Cook County is blessedly free of corporate-dominated media. Oh ya sure, the News Herald is owned by a media group but it's not Fox, not Murdoch, not even a very big player in the control-of-information game that was invented by the neocons who now control all three branches of the U.S. government--at which the founders would turn over and rise up from their grave to peaceably assemble and protest.
Lucky, yes, but well-served for the 21st century? True says no. Mind you, True is only a humble, ragtag collective. But She formed in response to a gap between the grapevine and the published Word a couple years back when Grand Marais was being invaded by Big Developers. That issue was happily resolved, to the benefit of most if not all.
New issues emerge, however, in our 21st century where technology daily changes the nature of the "press" even as most information is not now printed but rather published in cyberspace. And our backward local "press" have not joined the free and open Internet where anybody, anywhere can google something like "Poplar River impairment" and get all the published news articles from the local angle. Well, once we could get it from the News Herald but now it has gone private and you have to sign away your life story and pay money just to see an article. As for the Star, they are SO 20th century, you just have to save a copy of every paper.
And even here in our cozy little county our media have more serious limitations than Internet access. Let's name them:
The Star, the News Herald and WTIP are beholden to advertisers. Once the News Herald did editorials about issues in Cook County but now, nobody does.
WTIP is the emerging leader in comprehensive and substantive news coverage. They do a great job, covering issues and meetings that neither paper seems to manage to attend or explore.
But nobody gives us a big picture, nobody tries to put it all together (even inadequately, which would be a start), nobody fills in the gaps between the gossip mill and the deep truth.
Outsiders, even summer residents, can read and listen to every word but they still can't figure out what is really going on. That's partly because covering meetings, the basic stuff of the three branches of media, doesn't tell the stories but only describes the meetings.
OK, let's get specific, with a couple of examples.
1) The new major issue in Cook County is the big plans for development of Lutsen Mountain into an Aspen-like monstrosity. While this huge proposed travesty of the Cook County development ordinance looms large as an even greater threat than turning Grand Marais into a huge marina with Disney condos, there is scarcely a peep about it in the news.
2) Directly related to the Mountain Megalomania is the impairment of the Poplar River and the big misinformation being disseminated freely in both papers by--you guessed it--the OWNERS of Lutsen Mountain, who call themselves the "Poplar River Mangement Board." The irony here is that although these guys could well afford to BUY a page in both papers, they got it for free, in direct conflict with the policies that opinions and letters be strictly limited in word count. True will be exploring the Poplar River issues, trying to sift Truth from Sediment, in future posts.
But the point is, nobody else is looking at the big picture here, or taking any kind of a stand. Certainly not the county board which dances around and dodges with silly stuff about the legality of a special tax district that would force other Poplar River landowners to pay for the damage wreaked by the Lutsen Mountain owners, or the Lutsen Town Board that agrees to anything they want.
And here is the great failing of the media: what the Founders feared most when they wrote the First Amendment: that people can't make informed decisions without all the information. Both papers have printed full-page ads purporting to be "facts" by Lutsen Mountain owner Tom Rider. NOBODY has bothered to do any fact-checking.
Editorials have two purposes: one, to engage a public discussion and two, to bring a truthful perspective to the slipshod, piecemeal and disconnected stories that make up the daily news. We badly need them here, even without Rupert Murdoch's blockade of any facts at all.

Politics is war

Recently the media (both papers and WTIP) have nearly peed their pants over the visit by Governor Plenty-for-the-Rich. His speech was broadcast on WTIP. He was featured in photos with his oh-so-adorable wife and kid.
At the same time there were stories about the local delegates to the Dim and Repug annual love-fests.
Hey, politics is no longer a ball game, if it ever in fact was. Politics is war, at least since the 1980's when a group of Machiavellan plotters later known as "neocons" hatched up a battle plan to take over the US government permanently. Soon they also hooked up with the then-toothless "Moral Majority" and combined the advantages of wealth, power and a supposed channel to God to build a permanent one-party government. A government not of the people, by the people and for the people, but of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.
They have all-but succeeded. They have bought two presidential elections and brought to power a fool who is also a willing tool of his ultra-right, ultra-rich buddies from Yale and Texas oil.
They have decimated the middle class by outsourcing jobs and attacking unions, made college education an unaffordable luxury for many, slashed public school funding, pandered to big corporate interests to the detriment of health and well-being, created new classes of homeless people and near-poor, stacked the courts with their far-right-wing appointees, squandered the future of our children with overwhelming debt for their stupid wars-for-oil while also destroying thousands of young people's lives who idealistically wanted to serve their country after 9/11, made us the most hated people in the world, allowed and even encouraged big corporations to take over the media so the people would never get the real news, condoned torture and spying on all Americans, created a new Big Brother called "Homeland Security" that makes J. Edgar Hoover look like a pussycat, and tried to dismantle Social Security and Medicare.
Perhaps worst of all, these rich-and-powerful morons have probably doomed the earth to unmitigated disaster by denying global warming despite the melting of Artic permafrost, promoting environmental devastation in ever more invasive mining and lifting of regulations to protect air, land and water. This list actually only scratches the surface of the terrible damage done to the world by the neocons and their tame but hateful Religious Right.
This is war, war against the American people, waged by the party that controls the White House, the judiciary and even the Congress despite the 2006 election mandate to throw the suckers out. Pelosi, Reid, and the Blue Dog Dims don't have the stomach or the gumption for the hardball tactics that they COULD employ to bring democracy back to America.
Barack Obama has been voting party-line lately, too, for funding the Iraq war for another year, for giving amnesty to the big telecoms that were spying on our emails and phone calls...
I grew up in a world where the parties jousted and fenced, but had basic respect for the two-party system, the checks & balances of the Constitution, and yes, Truth, Justice and the American Way.
I was a "Nixonette" who later came to love JFK. I went to DFL bean feeds. It was all good fun in those days, until one party started assassinating the charismatic leaders of the other party.
Now it is war. Gov. Plenty has reduced taxes on the rich and replaced them with horrendous fees and sales taxes paid by the poor. He has refused to rebuild our failing infrastructure and bears direct responsibility for the 35W bridge collapse. He is angling for a high place in a McCain administration. He's a snake and also a seller of snake oil and he's looking out for Number One with every photo-op.
-True

Oppose Rep. Oberstar's HR 4292 Bill

Oberstar's HR 4292 is a "sellout": Selling Superior Forest land to Polymet for its disastrous proposed copper-nickel-palladium mine near Hoyt Lakes and within the Duluth area watershed:

Please link to this Duluth Tribune story by John Myers, who has written extensively on this issue, and let Rep. Oberstar know this sale of forest land to a private mining company with intent to destroy the environment is unacceptable.

-True

On the Internet

Oppose Rep. Oberstar's HR 4292 Bill Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007 This bill would sell 6,700 acres of Superior National Forest public land to PolyMet, a Canadian mining company. The main purpose of this bill is to avoid Federal environmental protections for public land near the BWCAW!

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/rss.cfm?id=67963&freebie_check&CFID=43336610&CFTOKEN=22072022&jsessionid=8830129b032e39576a23

Bill sells Superior National Forest land to Polymet

John Myers Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, June 06, 2008

Legislation in the U.S. House would sell 6,700 acres in the Superior National Forest to the Polymet copper company without an environmental assessment or public input.

The federal land is precisely where the company hopes to mine for copper, nickel, platinum and palladium as early as next year.

It would be the first major sale of Superior Forest land to a private company.

The bill, HR 4292, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., has not advanced in any committee.

Without legislation, the Forest Service is prohibited from selling any land to a private party, though exceptions are made for tracts smaller than 10 acres, said Jim Sanders, supervisor of the Superior National Forest.

Instead, the Forest Service usually trades land with property owners. The Forest Service has been negotiating with Polymet for about a year to exchange the land for other land in or near the Superior National Forest, Sanders said. But a land exchange of this size is more cumbersome, forcing Polymet to find multiple willing sellers, bargain over price and acquire purchase agreements.

The legislation would require the Forest Service to use money from the sale to buy private land of equal value in or near the Superior National Forest boundary. The bill exempts the land sale from a separate environmental review, but supporters note that an environmental review of the mining project is under way.

Supporters say the bill simply speeds up the process of trading the mine land for other forested land.

“The legislation gets us to the same end, the same result as a land exchange,” Sanders said. “It’s the same value, the same appraisal process, whether it’s a sale or exchange.”

Selling the land directly to Polymet probably would speed up the process by a year or so because it avoids the environmental assessment required with a land exchange and allows the Forest Service to deal with directly with willing sellers.

“We think it avoids a lot of duplication on the environmental assessment. … And it saves a lot of time and effort for both us and the Forest Service,” said Latisha Gietzen, Polymet vice president of public, environmental and government affairs.

Mineral rights vs. land ownership

Sanders said the Forest Service purchased the land from U.S. Steel in the 1930s but has never owned the mineral rights below the surface. Polymet controls those mineral rights.

Polymet officials say they had been moving ahead with mining plans, assuming their mineral rights “superseded” surface ownership, Gietzen said. Regional U.S. Forest Service officials last year informed the company that they didn’t hold the same legal opinion.

Rather than battle it out, the two sides agreed on the legislation to sell the land, Gietzen said. But if that fails, the company still could try to sue the government to gain access to the minerals.

“We certainly can challenge their opinion. … But nobody wants to go that route,” Gietzen said.

Because the 6,700 acres is surrounded by mining-related activities — a railroad to the south and an active taconite mine to the north — Sanders said it makes sense to sell the land and use the proceeds to buy other, more environmentally sensitive land closer to the heart of the forest.

The forest covers more than 3 million acres; about 2 million of that is owned by the federal government. There are hundreds of tracts of private, state and county-owned land within the forest boundaries.

Sanders said he is eying private land in the Kawishiwi River area, near Trout Lake, the Fernberg corridor and near Mud Lake, where landowners are willing to sell and where “it makes sense to consolidate our holdings.”

But critics of copper mining in the north woods say the legislation seems to offer a special deal to the mining company.

The land in question includes undeveloped forest and 1,200 acres of wetlands, said John Doberstein of Duluth, chairman of the Mining Without Harm committee of the Minnesota Sierra Club. The bill was introduced in December with no announcement.

“Not only does the bill exempt them from doing an Environmental Impact Statement [on the sale], it also sets a dangerous precedent of taking public land and transferring it to a private company for their profit without any public input,” Doberstein said. “This really seems to fast-track the land sale for the convenience of the company, without any regard whether this is the right thing to do with the forest.”

Critics say that copper mines in other areas of the world have almost always brought extreme environmental problems.

John Schadl, an Oberstar spokesman, said the bill was introduced at the request of the Forest Service and Polymet to speed the company toward mining operations.

“It’s an effort to expedite the process but still do it in an environmentally sound way,” Schadl said. “And the bill as it is now [will] not be the same bill that moves. … There will be some changes.”

No Senate version has been introduced yet.

Congressional action to sell national forest land to private parties is not unheard of, Sanders said. About a dozen such bills have been passed in the past decade, he said.

Polymet would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine. But Polymet is only one of several companies eyeing rich deposits of copper, nickel, platinum and palladium under northern Minnesota forests and lakes. The interest is being sparked by record-breaking prices for those minerals and new technology that make it easier to separate copper from other rock.

Polymet is the farthest along toward developing those minerals and has purchased land, processing equipment and buildings from the former LTV Mining site near Hoyt Lakes. The company’s proposed open pit mine on federal property is several miles away toward Babbitt and would be connected by railroad to the processing plant.

http://www.sosbluewaters.org/oberstar.htm

Alert on HR 4292: Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007

Link to bill ; http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-4292

This bill would sell Superior National Forest public land to a mining company in order to avoid public

environmental review and environmental protections !

HR 4292 mandates a sale of approximately 6,700 forested/wetland acres of Superior National Forest land near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, to PolyMet, Inc., a Canadian company hoping to open the first metallic sulfide copper strip mine in Minnesota. The U.S. Forest Service owns the surface rights to the land, but not the mineral rights. The underlying purpose of this bill would be to benefit the mining company by eluding steps in the standard land exchange process which includes public comment and environmental review.

PolyMet Mining proposed NorthMet site

Click on image to enlarge

Mineral Ownership of the Superior National Forest

Progressing with land transfer before completion of the environmental process

According to HR 4292, the U.S. Forest Service would be given required to sell 6,700 acres of public land to PolyMet before completion of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This is contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act (1969) and negates the purpose of the EIS, which is to allow for disclosure of environmental impacts of an action and for public input. There is an existing process for the Forest Service to exchange lands with private companies but exchange takes place after review that is open to the public in the form of an Environmental Impact Statement. This bill would circumvent that existing process.

This bill would also require the U.S. Forest Service to assume the responsibility for wetland replacement credits over a ten year period. The Army Corps of Engineers, in conjunction with the Forest Service, is responsible for assessing impacts and mitigation alternatives for wetlands as part of the PolyMet EIS process. In addition, the Wetland Conservation Act of Minnesota is intended to prevent further loss of wetlands within the State. Thus HR 4292 is contrary to both Federal and State law.

HR 4292 further disregards public input by specifically denying appeal of the outcome.

Special favors for mining companies

The U. S. Forest Service owns less than half of the mineral estate in the Superior National Forest and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Likewise, the Forest Service lacks mineral rights to many of its lands nationwide. This bill, if passed, could set precedence for the sale of public lands to private mining companies across the country. It would also open the doors for a dozen other mining companies who are currently exploring the Duluth Complex of rocks throughout Minnesota and other sulfide mineral deposits in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These sulfide-bearing rocks encompass an area that extends underneath the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and between Voyageurs National Park and Lake Superior, before dipping down into the southern part of the state.

Ignoring potential harm to the environment

At the same time that a bill designed solely to help PolyMet bypass existing environmental and public disclosure law is being circulated through the halls of Congress, PolyMet is downplaying the potential effects of acid mine drainage. Sulfuric acid is a byproduct of metallic sulfide mining and in all previous mines required perpetual treatment of any affected watershed.

PolyMet spokesmen claim their company is "following all of Minnesota's environmental laws." HR 4292 seems contradictory to this statement.

Action requested Concerned citizens need to contact their U.S. representative, and Minnesota senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman in opposition to HR 4292. More specifically, citizens can request an explanation from Rep. Oberstar regarding the intention of this bill to circumvent current environmental law, to sell public land for private investment, and to ignore opportunity for public input as part of the environmental impact statement process.

Primary Contact;

Senator Amy Klobuchar http://klobuchar.senate.gov/

E-Mail: senator@klobuchar.senate.gov

Toll Free: 1-888-224-9043

302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
phone: 202-224-3244
fax: 202-228-2186

1200 Washington Avenue South, Suite 250
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Main Line: 612-727-5220
Main Fax: 612-727-5223
Toll Free: 1-888-224-9043

1134 7th Street NW
Rochester, MN 55901
Main Line: 507-288-5321
Fax: 507-288-2922

121 4th Street South
Moorhead, MN 56560
Main Line: 218-287-2219
Fax: 218-287-2930

Olcott Plaza, Suite 105
820 9th Street North
Virginia, MN 55792
Main Line: 218-741-9690
Fax:218-741-3692

Senator Norm Coleman http://coleman.senate.gov/

E-Mail coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

Washington Office:
320 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-5641
Fax: 202-224-1152
Scheduling: 202-228-1503

Minnesota Office in St. Paul:
2550 University Ave W, Suite 100N
St. Paul, MN 55114
Main: 651-645-0323
Fax: 651-645-3110
Toll Free: 800-642-6041

Minnesota Office in Mankato:
12 Civic Center Plaza
Suite 2167
Mankato, Minnesota 56001
Main: 507-625-6800
Fax: 507-625-9427

Minnesota Office in Grand Rapids:
200 Northbank Center 206B
Northeast 3rd Street
Grand Rapids, MN 55744
Main: 218-327-9333
Fax: 218-327-8637

Minnesota Office in Moorhead:
810 4th Avenue South
Suite 203
Moorhead, MN 56560

IEN news release

The Sale of Federal Lands to a Mining Company in the 1854 Treaty Area of Minnesota

Representative James Oberstar from Minnesota’s 8^th congressional district has introduced HR 4292 in the U.S. House of Representatives. This act, titled - the Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007 – would, require the Secretary of Agriculture to sell certain lands in Superior National Forest in Minnesota to Polymet Mining Company within 180 days of enactment. The act requires:

(1) The sale of 6,700 acres of Forest Service lands;

(2) The first offer for the sale of the lands under this Act is to be made to Poly Met Mining, Inc explicitly for the purposes of strip mining;

(3) Elimination of the requirement for public disclosure and environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Compliance under NEPA is usually met by the writing and review of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that informs the Secretary, affected federally recognized Tribes, and the public about possible environmental impacts of a federal land exchange. A major environmental impact will be the mining company dredging or filling with mine waste 1,200 acres of wetlands included in this sale adjacent to the Partridge River, a tributary of the St. Louis River. The St. Louis River flows through the Fond du Lac Indian reservation on it’s way to Lake Superior.

(4) There can be no administrative appeal of the sale.

(5) The sale must take place within 180 days of the enactment of the act.

This legislation would create a precedent by which the Superior National Forest could sell public lands each time a mine gets close to the permitting phase of development. This act relieves the Forest Service from their responsibilities to protect public lands here in Minnesota. This could become a precedent elsewhere each time a federal land agency chooses to ignore it’s mandated management responsibilities on order to expedite mining operations.

Exchanges of federal land routinely happen all over the country. The Bureau of Land management and U.S. Forest Service conduct approximately three hundred land exchanges annually. There is a process delineated in law (the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976) that describes how this happens for both Bureau of Land Management holdings as well as U.S. Forest Service. There is no need to introduce legislation that circumvents existing law. There is a time tested federal process in place that gives the Secretary of Agriculture, the public, and Federally Recognized Indian tribes input into the land exchange process. While this process does not guarantee that all concerns are addressed, it guarantees that concerns are heard. The proposed legislation would take away the right for all citizens as well as other state, tribal, and federal agencies to have their voices heard on this land exchange.

This sale will have, as yet, undetermined impacts on treaty-reserved rights in the 1854 treaty area. There will be both short-term significant environmental consequences in the form of filling or draining approximately 1,200 acres of wetland and long term environmental and water quality degradation in the form of discharge from large waste rock piles. Loss of wetlands coupled with runoff from the mine waste stored on this site can adversely affect water quality as well as other cultural, and natural resources for miles downstream from the mine site. Chemicals from existing iron mines have already been detected in the St. Louis River where it enters the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation.

Let the Minnesota congressional delegation know that there is no need to sell this Forest Service land as proposed in HR 4292; there is an existing land exchange process that should not be circumvented. Let them know that all U.S. citizens and the tribes in the region have a right to express their views on the fate of this land. Let them know that there is an existing process for this type of transaction and that you favor the use of that process.

The author of H.R. 4292, The Superior National Forest Adjustment Act of 2007, is:

Congressman James L Oberstar

Eighth Congressional District of Minnesota

Duluth Federal Building, Room 231

Duluth, Minnesota 55802

(218) 727-7474

TDD: (218) 727-7474

FAX: (218) 727-8270

or

2365 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-6211

FAX: (202) 225-0699

http://www.oberstar.org/contact/

In the Senate, Amy Klobuchar is considering the introduction of companion legislation:

Senator Amy Klobuchar

1200 Washington Avenue South, Suite 250

Minneapolis, MN 55415

Main Line: 612-727-5220

Main Fax: 612-727-5223

or

302 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Phone: 202-224-3244

Fax: 202-228-2186

senator@klobuchar.senate.gov

For additional information, contact Robert Shimek, IEN Mining Projects Coordinator, 218-751-4967

Letter to the Duluth News Tribune-

To the editor:

I am writing to inform readers about H.R. 4292, the Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007, which is being sponsored by U.S. Representative James Oberstar. The sole purpose of this bill is to fast track a land sale between the U.S. Forest Service and PolyMet, Inc. in anticipation of the permitting of PolyMet’s proposed metallic sulfide mine near Hoyt Lakes.

The U.S. Forest Service would be given the authority to sell 6,700 acres of public forest land to PolyMet without any environmental review of the sale (which goes against current Federal law) and to assume the responsibility for wetland replacement credits over a ten year period (which goes against current wetland policy). Any administrative appeal would be denied. This bill would specifically help facilitate the permitting process for PolyMet.

The bill, if enacted, would also set a precedent for the selling of public land to private mining companies nationwide, based upon the fact that the U.S. Forest Service does not often hold the mineral rights to its lands.

Considering that PolyMet spokesmen claim they are asking for no favors and are following all of Minnesota’s environmental regulations, it seems a little strange that a bill designed solely for the benefit of PolyMet is currently circulating through the U.S. Congress.

At the same time, PolyMet is downplaying the effects of acid mine drainage, a problem associated with metallic sulfide mines, and which basically requires perpetual treatment. I believe it’s time for area citizens to take a closer look at the effects that the permitting of an entirely new mining industry will have upon the Arrowhead Region, and upon future generations.

Please let your elected officials know that you oppose this bill.

Sincerely,

Elanne Palcich

Chisholm, Minnesota

218-969-9557/218-254-3754

Blog-

http://www.theenvironmentsite.org:80/forum/environmental-news-discussion-forum/12434-6700-acres-superior-national-forest-being-sold-polymet-mng-no-eis-no-hearing.html

6700 acres of Superior National Forest being sold to POLYMET mng, NO EIS, NO hearing

---

Why is the National Forest Service selling 6700 acres of SUPERIOR NATL FOREST, MN, to Polymet, with no EIS??

There is a bill in Legislature in Minnesota to allow the National Forest Service to sell, directly to Polymet mining, 6700 acres of Superior National Forest, with no public hearing, no Environmental Impact Statement, nothing. that land includes 1200+ acres of wetlands.

My question is: why would the NFS suddenly, with no notice, place a bill to sell DIRECTLY, with NO public input, land to a mining company, land...that is the publics land?

Incidentally, Polymet intends to, within 12 months, have an open pit mining operation in place and active in that land. Have you seen what damage an open pit copper mine DOES to the earth?

WHY ARE WE ALLOWING THIS?

Contact your fellow environmentalists and please, make this an issue of contention. Its important!!!

Representative Jim Oberstar http://www.oberstar.house.gov//

E-Mail: http://wwwc.house.gov/oberstar/zipauth.htm

D.C. Office 2365 Rayburn HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-6211

Duluth Office 231 Federal Building Duluth, MN 55802 (218) 727-7474

Chisholm Office City Hall, 316 Lake St. Chisholm, MN 55719 (218) 254-5761

Brainerd Office City Hall, 501 Laurel St. Brainerd, MN 54601 (218) 828-4400

North Branch Office 38625 14th Ave., Ste. 300B North Branch, MN 55056 (651) 277-1234

Contacting Office of the Governor http://www.governor.state.mn.us/contacts/index.htm

To contact Governor Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Governor Carol Molnau, please write, phone, fax or e-mail.

Mailing Address:

Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Other ways to reach our office:

Telephone: (651) 296-3391
Toll Free: (800) 657-3717
Facsimile: (651) 296-2089
E-mail: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

Contact Congress

http://www.mfc.org/grass/congress.htm

First District
Congressman Timothy J Walz(DFL)

Washington, DC Office: 1529 Longworth HOB Washington DC 20515 ph: (202) 225-2472 fax: (202) 225-3433

Manakato Office: 227 E Main St Suite 220 Mankato, MN 56001 ph: (507)388-2149 fax: (507) 388-6181

Rochester Office: 1134 7th St NW Rochester, MN 55901 ph:(507)206-0643 fax: (507)206-0650

E-Mail:
Web site: http://walz.house.gov

Second District
Congressman John Kline (R)

101 E. Burnsville Parkway, Ste 210 Burnsville, MN 55337 952-808-1213 Fax 952-808-1261

1429 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-2271 Fax 202-225-2595

Internet e-mail: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Web site: http://www.house.gov/kline/

Third District
Congressman Jim Ramstad (R)

1809 Plymouth Rd S, Suite 300 Minnetonka, MN 55305 952-738-8200 Fax: 952-738-9362

103 Cannon House Office Bldg Washington DC 20015 202-225-2871 Fax: 202-225-6351

E-mail: mn03@mail.house.gov
Web site: http://www.house.gov/ramstad

Fourth District
Congressman Betty McCollum (DFL)

165 Western Ave N, Suite 17 St. Paul, Minnesota 55102 651-224-9191 Fax: 651-224-3056

1029 Longworth House Office Bldg Washington DC 20515 202-225-6631 Fax: 202-225-1968

E-Mail: http://www.mccollum.house.gov/index.asp?Type=NONE&SEC={AC61FD79-AD5F-440D-A7F0-555B12349E5B}
Web site: http://www.house.gov/mccollum/

Fifth District
Congressman Keith Ellison (DFL)

2100 Plymouth Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55411 Phone: (612) 522-1212 Fax: (612) 522-9915

1130 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4755 Fax: (202) 225-4886

E-Mail:
Web site: http://ellison.house.gov/index.shtml

Sixth District
Congressman Michele Bachmann (R)

6043 Hudson Rd Suite 330 Woodbury, MN 55125 Phone: 651-731-5400 Fax: 651-731-6650

412 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2331

E-mail:
Web site: http://bachmann.house.gov/index.shtml

Seventh District
Congressman Collin Peterson (DFL)

714 Lake Ave Ste 107 Detroit Lakes MN 56501 218-847-5056 Fax: 218-847-5109	320 S Fourth St, Centre Point Mall Willmar, MN 56201 320-235-1061 Fax: 320-235-2651
Minnesota Wheat Growers Bldg 2603 Wheat Dr Red Lake Falls MN 56750 218-253-4356 Fax: 218-253-4373	2159 Rayburn House Office Bldg Washington DC 20515 202-225-2165 Fax: 202-225-1593

E-Mail: tocollin.peterson@mail.house.gov
Web site: http://www.house.gov/collinpeterson/

Copyright 2008 Save Our Sky Blue Waters, All Rights Reserved

The World's Longest ATV Parade is here!

WebEvent: Show Single Event
This link gives you all the skinny on that hoped-for world-record-breaking parade of ATVers gathered in Silver Bay today. That's right folks, today. They're expecting 2,500 people from all over the country, loud and proud, to ride some 50 miles of trails and play lots of fun games and churn up some topsoil and spew some fumes into the air.
It's the 25th anniversary of the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota. Reason enough to bring out the storm troopers, last gathered two years ago in Harlan County, Kentucky, that bastion of coal mining greed where moutaintops are getting cut off and thrown down. A little ATV erosion seems but a small thing next to that, n'est-ce pas?
Here's where the rest of the world discovers the newest ATV destination: the North Shore!

Press gives free full-page ads to Lutsen Mountain owners

Both the Star and the News Herald have strict policies about word limits on their editorial pages. Lots of just plain folks as well as elected officials have gotten the brush-off when they attempted to exceed the limits, maybe because they were writing about an issue too complex to cover in 400 words.
Not so the Poplar River Management Board, that thinly veiled cover for the owners of Lutsen Mountain who want a North Shore Aspen of megadevelopment to add to the already overtaxed Poplar River...
No, both papers gave these folks a full page, right a full page, presumably without charging for the advertising that their devious spin on the facts amounted to.
Corporate owners don't deserve to get public support, period. And when they are part of the problem they darned well ought to pay for the solution, and not pass it on to the hapless residents who can so ill afford to pay more taxes.
True

Don't trust DNR on ATVs

Dear True,

If you are one of those who still trusts the DNR to do the right thing for the environment this webpage should completely eliminate that thought.
Anonymous

http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/dnrdocuments/HayCreek.html

Hay Creek ATV damage

The Hay Creek ATV damage site is on an 80 acre parcel of our state land within thousands of acres of Cass County land. Cass County controls the access and refuses to restrict ATV riders access.

On April 4, 2005 I was hiking my favorite trail and photo documenting the massive amount of ATV damage that is taking place on our public lands because of the do-nothing MN legislature and the MN DNR.

I came across severe ongoing erosion caused by ATV riders. The trail is a winter logging trail and is designed to be used only during winter when the ground is frozen. Beavers had dammed a flowage and caused the water to run down the trail as they had done in the past only this time the deep ATV ruts concentrated the flow. Without the root matt to hold the soil it was rapidly eroding into Hay Creek during fish spawning season.

This first series was taken as I walked towards Hay Creek on 4-4-05. It shows only a very small portion of the rutted trail. I have only used a few of the photos in order to speed loading. This spring I took hundreds of similar photos of ATV damage to our forest trails in Cass and Crow Wing County forests. Gross negligence on the part of Cass and Crow Wing County officials and the MN DNR has allowed the creation of literally miles of ruts just like those shown in these photos.

Here's the beginning of the washout next to Hay Creek. The photo was taken looking backwards. It was taken on 4-4-05.

On 4-5-05 I notified the MN DNR and Cass County of the ongoing damage and emailed photos of the site.

Here is what the same site looked like on 4-12-05 seven days after I notified the MN DNR and Cass County.

Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.

Here is what the same site looked like on 4-21-05 sixteen days after I notified the MN DNR and Cass County..

Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.

Here is what the same site looked like on 5-4-05 one month later. I brought the MN DNR and Cass County staff to look at the site on that day.

Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.

Here is what the same site looked like on 7-3-05. Vegetation covers most of the site so the 4 foot deep gully is barely visible.

Still no action from the MN DNR or Cass County was taken to stop the erosion into Hay Creek.

As of January 16, 2006 despite numerous group hugs and agency visits to the site nothing has been done to restore or stabilize this trail from continuing to erode into Hay Creek. I expect that spring runoff and spring rains will continue the process of erosion.

Even though $475,000 sits in the ATV damage account for just this sort of restoration the MN DNR still refuses to use that money. I believe it it so that pro-ATV legislators (Bakk, Dill, Penas, Hackbarth, Saxhaug and Irv Anderson) and certain DNR staff can claim it isn't needed. In 1999 when our very own MN DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten was Representative Holsten he teamed up with then Representative Tom Bakk to push an 11th hour amendment that allowed ATV riders to leave the trail and ride randomly through our forests. That helped create a No Boundaries attitude that can be seen in the ATV trails around closed signs to this day. It's no wonder that ATV riders are destroying our forest trails and wetlands with a so-what leadership like that at the very top of the MN DNR.

I was able to email a question to DNR Commissioner Holsten on MPR Midday. The host asked DNR Commissioner if he regretted pushing the 1999 amendment that allowed ATV riders to ride randomly off trail through out forests. You can hear him tapdance around the question here http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/02/05/midday2/ . Click on the listen button to the left of the image. Then scroll to 11:36 minutes to hear the question and his evasive answer. I doubt that he regrets it and only regrets that people know what he did.

You can add Senator Satveer Chaudhary's name to the Hall of Shame when it comes to supporting irresponsible and destructive OHV use in MN state forests. He is the chair of the Environment and Natural Resource Committee in the MN Senate. His actions and the bill he passed out of his committee puts him in the same league as the scoundrels above.

The MN DNR finally "restored" the Hay Creek ATV damage site. You will see what I mean by "restored" in the following photos. It is PATHETIC. Now they will refer to this site as a success story about how they, the great protectors of the environment rushed to the rescue and made everything right despite great obstacles. The MN DNR and irresponsible legislators like those named above are the obstacles to protecting our state forest from irresponsible ATV riders.

Here are before and after restoration photos of the site.

Before After

The "before" photo was taken well before the erosion was complete. The final gully was 4' deep and up to 11' wide.

Before After

I don't have any good before photos of this part of the trail shown below but as you can see it doesn't matter because the DNR didn't make any attempt to restore this portion of the trail. The majority (90%) of the trail was not touched in the "restoration".

It's no doubt that the DNR was more concerned about saving ATV damage account dollars than restoring the trail.

Cass County has refused to control access to this site even going so far as to place the gate at the east entrance to the area in such a way that ATVs and mudder trucks can go around the gate.

Cass County also refuses to close the west access point even though ATVs are riding in Pistol Lake. These photos represent only a tiny portion of the ATV ruts along the shoreline of Pistol Lake. They are clearly visible from the air and Cass County is well aware of the ongoing damage. The water from Pistol Lake flows into Hay Creek and then to Daggett Brook and finally into the Whitefish Chain before joining the Pine River on it's way to the Mississippi River. Without the cooperation of Cass County Commissioners there is little chance of enforcing any ATV regulations or protecting this site from further ATV damage. They seem to have embraced a slash-and-burn economic development philosophy when it comes to ATV regulation with their stated goal of leaving 90% of Cass County land open to ATV riders.

Unfortunately Crow Wing County has adopted the same reckless position of allowing ATV riders to destroy our trails. It is evident in that we have NO county ordinances that would allow any realistic regulation of these machines despite the fact that Crow Wing County commissioners have had years to write those ordinances.. I have photographed literally miles of deep ATV ruts in Crow Wing County.

Some of those images can be seen at http://www.crowwingcountymn.org

MN legislature stealing our gas tax dollars to give to ATV riders

Each time you buy gas the ATV riders illegally siphon off 0.27% of the Constitutionally dedicated gas tax that you paid. Each year ATV riders are stealing nearly $2 million from our badly needed transportation fund. It's called a "refund" because supposedly ATV riders cannot use our highway system but ATV riders ARE using our highway system ditches. It also violates the MN Constitution to divert money from our highways and bridges.

The ATV lobby pushed legislation that requires all ATV owners to license their vehicles even if they never leave private property. Then they steal that license money to build ATV trails. It also inflates the numbers of ATVs so that the ATV lobby now uses that massively inflated figure to justify building more trails and prevent any reasonable ATV regulations.

A study was commissioned to find out how much gas tax ATV riders pay and where they ride. After spending our tax dollars to fund the study and collecting all the data the MN DNR looked the other way when 1/2 of the study was left undone. The half that was left undone with the DNR's permission would have drastically reduced the amount of our gas tax funneled into the MN DNR Trails and Waterways. The missing part of the study showed that only 15% of riders use trails on public lands.

In a nutshell the gas tax "refund" is based on the false premise that ATV riders aren't riding in our ditches, massively inflated numbers of ATVs and that 100% of ATV riders ride on public land instead of only 15%.

Gene Larimore from the Jack Pine Coalition finished the second half of the study. Here are the results of his analysis. Gas tax His analysis has never been contested by the MN DNR or the ATV lobby.

Home

The lowly lynx: fed's environment trump card

True loves the environment and also loves the Lynx, along with every other sentient creature on the planet.
But I can't help but notice that the feds don't really give a s**t about the polar bears, nearing extinction on account of global warming, the wolf who can now be shot from the air in some places with impunity, and a host of other species endanged by such atrocious practices as cutting off mountaintops to get more coal.
Ah. But, they stand firm on the lynx. In Cook County, where 90 percent of the land is publicly owned and lynx habitat protected, they are determined to regulate the rest of us and restrict our back yards. Lynx, to my delight, run through my small private forest and presumably feed upon the abundant snowshoe hare that also live here. I hope they always will feel comfortable visiting. BUT. Restrictions on whether I can build something new on my land? It makes me want to spit on those who lop the tops off moutains that have stood for thousands of years.
Or maybe they just have it in for us in Cook County. We aren't allow even limited commercial fishing on Lake Superior although conservative projections show that won't adversely affect local fish populations. The white settlers here survived by commercial fishing and our 150-year history here would never have happened without it.
Where is there any perspective? Fishing does not cause global warming, and doesn't harm anything or anybody except the unlucky fish who are caught. But protecting the lynx on private property could have devastating effects on our local economy.

Pro-ATV Tofte board throws hissy fit

Confronted with safety concerns cited by Cook County engineer Shae Kosmalski about connecting Highway 61 and the "600 Road" where ATV trails begin via the Sawbill Trail, Tofte township chair Paul James said that ordinances have "driven people out of the woods." "What are kids supposed to do? Stay home and watch TV?" (quotes from the Cook County Star). James was backed up by Supervisors DC Olsen and Tom Muntean.
Might True respectfully suggest that kids could hike, canoe, kayak, swim, backpack, camp out, bird watch, or in any of a thousand other ways enjoy the North Country woods without the devastation caused by ATVs, not to mention the egregious waste of gas and concomitant carbon emissions that hasten the day of reckoning when global warming destroys life as we know it on the planet? This could happen in our lifetime.
True uses gas only sparingly, only for basic necessities of life. Why the hell should spoiled kids squander gas for their destructive ATVs, and in the process erode yet more of our dwindling soils?
The "recreational" use of gas-guzzling and habitat-destroying ATVs should be going the way of the horse-and-buggy if we are to survive the 21st century.

Ugly America

Dear True,

I’m thinking about the Ugly Americans, about what evil they have done to the world so far in the first decade of the 21^st century. Let me count the ways:

First there was what we might call 9/11 revenge: to avenge the deaths of 4,000 Americans on that tragic day we have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens in other nations, mostly Iraq and Afghanistan. We have left millions homeless, we have destroyed their infrastructure and centuries of culture, we have committed rape and murder by our hired mercenaries like Blackwater, we have caused 4,000 soldiers to die and untold others ruined lives, suicides, post traumatic stress unlike any war in living memory and we have failed to provide jobs or health care or training to these fractured souls when they come home. Have we taken enough revenge yet? Can we finally say, yes, we now understand why “they” hate us so much?

Second, the markets of the whole world are reeling from the bad mortgage loans given out by greedy profiteers, yes, here in the US of A. The dollar has tanked for similar reasons and the trillions of dollars of federal debt are owed by and large to other countries like Japan and China.

Next, look at our record on torture of prisoners, warrantless spying on everybody, destruction of a free press by the big media giants, dirty tricks politicking to win at any cost, the Bush-Cheney-Rove cabal’s devastation of our own constitution which so wisely provided separation of powers, the dismantling of all the good and great social nets that brought widespread security and prosperity after the Depression…. This list is endless. Look at the millions of people here and billions elsewhere who can’t meet their basic survival needs for food, clothing and shelter thanks to our ruinous economic policies and the rampant greed of big oil. Look at how everything costs so much because it has to be delivered via oil-based energy, at how diverting grain production to ethanol has caused starvation.

Worst of all, don’t look too hard at how fast the Arctic permafrost is melting and releasing poisonous methane into the air we breathe, or at the dizzying speed of carbon emissions already spiraled beyond sustainable levels (i.e. that 350 ppm). Don’t look because you will recoil in terror, because there is probably no turning back from global disaster even if we stopped all coal-fired plants NOW and we won’t. No it’s bidness as usual in the good old US of A, the greed and hubris capitol of the world. It’s ME, NOW, SPEND, PILLAGE and PLUNDER. It’s cut down the mountaintops and create dead zones where no life survives just to mine a little more treasure trove out of Mother Earth, an astonishing and horrific metaphor for all we have done, all we have become.

Anonymous

Let them eat Triscuits

Dear readers,
Who will speak for those of us devastated by rampant inflation of food, gas, heat and electricity? Hmm, looks like it is up to little old me...
What is the deal here in Cook County? While the busy-ness elected officials continue to seek new sales taxes-a regressive burden on the poor-look out! Prices are rising at alarming rates.
Maybe not so surprising, since the world we know is also disintegrating (carbon emissions, melting Arctic permafrost releasing methane that humans can't breathe...)
Back to the point: True tries to eat right while respecting sustainable agriculture. For True, this does not mean buying organic fruits and vegetables! Ya ya it is the right thing to do BUT...
True is broke. So far not reduced to seeking macaroni from the food shelf, but no way being able to afford organic produce. Is that a sin?
There's a disconnect here. The rich can afford to buy organic, but I can't. I still owe big bucks for my winter fuel bills. My well water line doesn't work.
And yet I get guilt-tripped by the organic PC club?
Hello, folks. I used to have Triscuits and (Wisconsin, no hormones) cheese for dinner. Ya? When you are old and creaky maybe this will look good to you too.
Somehow I manage to buy fairly healthy food for myself and my beloved companion animals.
But, I won't be buying any more Triscuits, my former fave, 100 percent whole wheat with no trans fats.
Last week the price of a box was $3.19 for 9.5 ounces (a reach, by the pound this would buy some very fancy cheese at the coop); this week it is $4.00....
Like lots of poor folks, I can still get fat on the cheap stuff: white bread, pasta, potatoes, and corn chips. Nobody in Cook County need go without Kraft Dinner! Yum yum, everybody loves comfort food...
But what to do to make a difference in this world where people in Burma starve without even empty calories? True can't afford to make a difference!

MinnPost

New mining industry leaves Arrowhead wetlands vulnerable

By Elanne Palcich

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

In the late 1800s, the U.S. government claimed the land of Minnesota, and pushed the indigenous people onto reservations. The huge pine forests of northern Minnesota were cut, red earth was discovered, and immigrants from a variety of struggling northern and southern European nations moved in to become workers for the mining companies.

While the Iron Range continues to be mined, following bands of taconite rock, the Arrowhead region of Minnesota escaped the mining process. Some of the northern counties were in large part wetlands, while others remained forestland. The Arrowhead region became known for its lakes and for the quality of outdoor recreational opportunities — the vacation land of the north, where campers "hear the lapping waters, hear the whispering of the pine trees."

These northern wetlands escaped the destruction that occurred as the rest of the state turned urban or agricultural.

Scientists know that wetlands have evolved over the past 10,000 years, since the recession of the last glaciers. We also know now that wetlands sequester carbon — and that destroying wetlands releases carbon that has been stored over centuries. There is evidence that global climate change is literally being fueled by the burning of fossil fuels and the accompanying release of CO2 into the air.

A new threat in the Arrowhead
Minnesota's wetlands may hold the key to moderating climate change on a local level, except for one thing: the threat of an entirely new mining industry poised to begin in the Arrowhead.

The industrialization of the burgeoning populations of China and India is driving demand and prices for copper, nickel, platinum, and gold — precious metals bonded within sulfide ores throughout the Duluth Complex, the underlying rock formation of the Arrowhead Region.

These precious metals are very low grade — 0.4 percent copper, 0.1 percent nickel and 0.01 ounces per ton of platinum, palladium, and gold. But the current price is enough to bring a half-dozen Canadian companies into the Arrowhead, exploring in an unregulated fashion and pulling every political string for funding and support.

The international balance of economic power is changing. Just three generations after the take-over of native lands by extractive industries, Canadian companies are seeking to turn the remaining Arrowhead Region into a colonial outpost for China and India. For basically a handful of jobs, we are turning over our land and our culture so that Canadian companies and their shareholders can earn fantastic sums on precious metals while our workers will receive $40,000-a-year nonunion wages (translate into no pension and no health care) based on the price of copper. And when the price of copper drops, or the precious-metals market collapses, or the price of diesel fuel makes mining uneconomical, the Canadian companies will pull up stakes and leave northern Minnesota with an acid-mine drainage problem requiring perpetual treatment — almost forever.

No way to replace lost wetlands
The Arrowhead region of northern Minnesota is our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It's our Brazilian rainforest. It is the equivalent of the remaining special places left on each continent, in each country. When we lose our wetlands, there is no way to replace them. There is no way to reconstruct a process that took thousands of years to form. There is no way to recapture the carbon released when wetlands are destroyed. There is no way to rebuild the wildlife habitat and plant communities that will be eliminated.

At the same time, this new mining industry would spew hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 into the air, further contributing to global warming.

Consider, too, that the Arrowhead is just the first piece of the metallic sulfide pie. While exploration is progressing in the Birch Lake area, along the Kawishiwi River, Partridge River, and the St. Louis River, companies are also exploring along the Rainy, Pigeon, Root, Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, the Mille Lacs area, in the Big Sandy Watershed (Aitkin County), and in Carlton County.

Bill would set a precedent
In the meantime, U.S. 8th District Rep. James Oberstar has introduced a bill in Congress (H.R. 4292, the Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007) that would fast track a land sale between the U.S. Forest Service and Polymet, Inc., in anticipation of the permitting of Polymet's proposed metallic sulfide mine near Hoyt Lakes. While this bill singles out Polymet for special treatment, it would also set a precedent for the selling of public lands to private mining companies nationwide, or wherever the Forest Service does not own the mineral rights. Much of the mineral estate in Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters is owned by mining interests, not the Forest Service. What implications might this have for the future?

What exactly are those of us living here thinking? Are we in denial regarding the ecological degradation that is taking place on a global scale and how this is going to affect our future? Are we naive enough to believe propaganda about clean mining technology that is being pushed upon us by mining-company spokesmen who are set to receive huge bonuses once the sulfide industry gets up and running?

Or are we going to believe in our own ability to create an alternative future that allows us to finally acknowledge the true heritage of the Arrowhead Region — that of living in harmony with the land?

Elanne Palcich, a retired elementary school teacher, lives in Chisholm, Minn.

The ATV song: Ride roughshod over the rivers and through the woods

Oh, here we go again!
Not content with inviting all the ATVers in the world to their June parade in Silver Bay, the local ATV crowd is demanding that the North Shore State Trail be opened to their noisy and destructive vehicles.
As for the old slogan that "We just want a place for locals to ride," the latest demand is to eliminate the 90-mile limit on trails in Cook County. So, how many miles do you locals want permission to destroy fragile ecosystems and wildlife habitat on?
The US Forest Service process started last year with mucho public input to try to keep everybody happy has tanked. How thankless to try to find a way to preserve the environment by limiting the damage done by ATV rough riders, not to mention protecting quiet spaces. It isn't only the people who need peace and silence, it is the wild creatures who are terrified by the noise and smells and speedy depradations of the clueless folks who bring their joyless and lawless midget psyches blundering into the ancient forest.
It looks to be a long summer. Lovers of peace and quiet, beware!

Here's a pretty mess!

Reprise: Developer mania once seen in downtown Grand Marais is alive and well on Lutsen Mountain. True is reminded of the neocon power domination philosophy so eloquently stated by Karl Rove (or was it Darth Cheney?): You just push and push and keep pushing until you get stopped.
So it is on Lutsen Mountain. The rich owners who here shall remain nameless wish to turn the moutain into an Aspen-like city of huge buildings (55 plus feet high) and infrastructure paid for by the government (as in "public-private partnership" meaning public subsidies of private enterprise) and utterly destructive of the moutain's steep-slope land with its limited soil on bedrock, and the Poplar River watershed that supports all life within its domain.
The nameless management has shamelessly advocated for a new one-percent sales tax that will like the proverbial straw break the backs of us poor folks already suffering from huge new costs for food, energy, gas and health care.
Says Leroy Halberg, water and septic inspector for Cook County, "No one is lookiing at the overall picture, the cumulative effect of development on the watershed."
A recent letter was sent to the Lutsen town board from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health. In part this letter read, "We are starting to question whether the area can sustain such increased pressure on its water resources without impacts to human health and the environment. Currently there are 14 noncommunity wasterwater treatment systems in the area and all of this water is obtained from aquifers that have limited capabilities for providing drinking water."
In case y'all haven't noticed, neocons in the years since Reagan have increasingly de-clawed regulation; all the more remarkable that two Minnesota regulatory agencies have the courage to send a letter like this to challenge the corporate-owner dominated Poplar River Management Board.
There will be public meetings between the PRMB and the county coming up to consider wastewater treatment and drinking water safety.
Folks, turn out! Or failing that, write letters or emails or call your West End Commissioner Bruce Martinson.
Do you think Lutsen Mountain makes a profit from its disregard of the Poplar watershed? Does the Pope shit in the woods?

The Gunsmoke Monologues: Oh those f*****g PC Police!

Dear True,

Now the PC police are raising the “bar”: charging bar owners who allow smoking when a play is in progress, a loophole in the new Minnesota ordinance, the so-called “Freedom to Breathe” Act. Yep, in Babbitt. Presumably everybody there was either watching or participating in the play, “Gunsmoke Monologues,” (get it?) and chose not to breathe all on their own.

What the hell? If y’all want to police smokers, if you PLEASE, make them stop smoking right outside the building where I can’t escape the fumes. But, NO. This is considered on the level of “nuisance crimes” like littering our precious forests, that nobody bothers to enforce.

Smokers get to have a life and they ought to get regularly screened for lung cancer—which also attacks non-smokers but usually gets diagnosed too late to save their lives because the PC Police decree that they are Bad, that they Deserve to Die.

I used to be a smoker. In the 20th century there were allowances made. Railroads had smoking cars, clubs had smoking rooms. Now in the 21^st it would be so easy to create comfortable and pleasant rooms for smokers, with our high tech options to mitigate, ventilate, and separate. But, NO. The evil Smokers must be punished. No leeway is permitted, no comfort allowed, no recognition for the social community of smokers (Think, a ciggie after sex? After dinner?). NOT, you say: They are so bad, bad, bad, even if you were once one of them.

Well, except for letting them puff away while I am trying to enter a building, any building, y’all make me want to smoke again (in a comfortable room at home with the window open or lazing on my deck). After 13 years, I Need a Smoke! In Kentucky where I come from tobacco is a good thing. For Native Americans, tobacco is a sacred thing.

Minnesota is one of the worst states in terms of trying to find a sensible solution for non-smokers and smokers alike. Ugh. I wish I could move to Canada, but with Repugs like Pawlenty, Bachmann, Bush & Cheney in charge, the dollar is tanked and so I can’t afford to leave this stupid state. Don’t forget, it wasn’t the best and the brightest who left the old country for the New World (as dear Garrison Keillor has pointed out)!

Last but not least, Minnesota “allows” corporate polluters hundreds of thousands of pounds per year for environmental pollutants discharged in the course of their business activities. The state wants to invest in more filthy coal-powered electrical plants and a copper mine (Polymet) that will destroy all life in local lakes and streams. The state has jumped on the Ethanol Bandwagon even though it is widely understood that the consequences of ethanol production will increase poverty and hunger while destroying wildlife habitat around the increasingly fragile world we inhabit.

Minnesotans, get your priorities straight. Have a little compassion for smokers, give them a filtered space to light up, and think outside the PC Police Law. If you want to be really PC, start charging those corporate giants with the “new sin” of pollution as per the Pope and letting THEM pay the big fines.

Anonymous