Save the Boundary Waters: the work being done, the current lay of the land, and the roles of citizens & science in a locally-led national campaign to ban copper mining in the BWCAW Watershed.

This will be a Zoom meeting only. MNNPS members, check your email for instructions.

Date: Thursday, November 12, 7:00 PM.

Presenter: Matt Norton, Policy & Science Director for Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW) and Save the Boundary Waters

Matt Norton will present on the organizations’ goals, strategies, and accomplishments; the current administration’s moves strip protections from the Boundary Waters watershed and what comes next at the federal level; and how citizens and Minnesota policy makers still have the power to put permanent protections in place.  He will also provide an overview of water quality data in the watershed, and how the data and published science answer key questions:

• what are the existing water quality conditions in the watershed?;
• where in the watershed is pollution originating?;
• how far downstream does it travel?; and
• how do the pollutants affect water, fish/wildlife, and people?

He will address the policy implications of these answers, and conclude with the story of how NMW came to the realization that without a thoughtfully-designed water quality monitoring program in the watershed and the staff and expenditures to carry it out, neither NMW nor the State of Minnesota would have enough solid data in the watershed to answer these questions to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, and thereby inform reasoned decision-making.  Q & A will follow.

Presenter:
Matt Norton is Policy & Science Director for Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW) and Save the Boundary Waters, and oversees NMW’s water monitoring and data visualization efforts.  Matt has undergraduate and master’s degrees in biology and forest science from Yale University, and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.  Matt has worked since 2002 to protect Minnesotans’ air, water, and public lands, including with NMW since 2016, and previously with the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy