Comments from Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness – The Wilderness Society – Center for Biological Diversity
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, The Wilderness Society, Center for Biological DiversityOpposeAdvocacy
Summary: Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, The Wilderness Society, and Center for Biological Diversity are submitting comments in opposition to the proposed regulatory reform. They specifically argue against the potential revocation of Public Land Order 7917, which protects the Rainy River watershed from mining, and oppose the rescission of specific BLM regulations that limit mineral lease acreages.
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW), The Wilderness Society (TWS), and Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) today submit via the Regulations.gov portal a comment letter dated June 18, 2025 and comment letter attachments which are itemized in a list at the end of the comment letter. Note that a number of the letter attachments are merged into larger pdf so as to keep the total number of files (letter and attachments) uploaded via Regulations.gov today to 20 electronic files. Note also that a separate hardcopy set of the letter and the same attachments was placed in U.S. Mail on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 for delivery to U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240.
NMW, TWS, and CBD incorporate by reference all attachments on the list, and which are in transit via U.S. Mail, into our comments. NMW, TWS, and CBD also incorporate by reference all documents in the appendices to our formal comments submitted in support of the Rainy River Withdrawal application or to our formal comments submitted on the Rainy River Withdrawal Draft Environmental Assessment. Those appendix documents are too voluminous to submit via Regulations.gov, but must be considered and included in the record because a complete set of those appendix documents was delivered both to the BLM and to the USFS in the course of the comment periods on the Rainy River Withdrawal application and the Rainy River Withdrawal Draft Environmental Assessment.
Sincerely,
Matt Norton
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness
Matt@savetheboundarywaters.org
Attachments
- Comment Letter of NMW- TWS- CBD on 2025 06 03_DOI RFI - Docket No. DOI-2025-0005 (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2016-12-14 Decision Letter- USFS Chief to BLM Director - withholding consent to mineral lease renewal (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2021 USFS Application for Mineral Withdrawal (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2022-01-17 - Comment Letter of NMW- CBD- Earthjustice- NPCA- TWS- VC- and WW in Support of the Superior National Forest Withdrawal Application cmprsd (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2022-01-24 USFS Chief Letter - Withholding of Consent Never Withdrawn (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2022-07-12 - Comment Letter of NMW- CBD- Earthjustice- NPCA- TWS- VC- and WW on Draft EA for Rainy River Withdrawal (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2023-01-31 - Public Land Order No. 7917 for Withdrawal of Federal Lands - Cook- Lake- and Saint Louis Counties- MN- 88 Fed. Reg. 6308 (January 31 2023). (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2024-12-03 - BLM letter to USFS re PRLA correspondence (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2024-12-18 USFS to BLM re PRLA correspondence (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 5 to 8 re- energy emergency (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 2 - 2022-06-28 - 2022-07-21 - Fed. Reg. Notices -- Opportunity to Comment on Environmental Assessment for Rainy River Withdrawal Application and Extension of Comment Period for Rainy River Withdrawal (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 3 - 2025-06-11 - X post by Secretary Brooke Rollins- Secretary Burgum and I have been working together to unleash American Energy. X (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 10 - 2025-05-14 - Scrap copper was piling up in the US. Now it can finally move. Bloomberg via MINING.COM (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 14 - Council on Environmental Quality - Alternative Arrangements Pursuant to 40 CFR Section 1506.11 - Emergencies (May 2019) - ceq - doe (PDF)
- Exhibit - fn 9 and 11 - U.S. Geological Survey (2025) Mineral commodity summaries 2025 (ver. 1.2- March 2025)- U.S. Geological Survey- 212 p. at pp. 64-65 (PDF)
- RRW - Mineral Potential Report AND Reasonably Foreseeable Development Report (PDF)
- RRW - Case Studies Report (PDF)
- RRW- EA Resource Reports part 1- Air Quality Report through Recreation Report cmprsd (PDF)
- RRW- EA Resource Reports part 2- Roadless and Other Designated Areas Report through Wilderness Resource Report cmprsd (PDF)
- Final EA Rainy River Withdrawal (PDF)