State Agencies' Publications Undermine GTac Mine Appeal

Wrong-Way Walker made the weakening of Wisconsin mining law a top priority on behalf of special interests, a mining company and the donor/officials who run it so they can level the Penokee Hills for a massive open-pit iron ore mine in the Bad River/Lake Superior watershed.

But communications and materials published by two state agencies, including the DNR, undercut the re-purposing of the area from pristine streams, lakes, wetlands and forested hills into a 35-year multiple-mile trench belching dust and leaking toxic runoff.

And if the area is so expendable, why, as I noted a while ago, is the State Department of Tourism pointing visitors, hikers and campers there? 

The state's invitation to the park and its surroundings sure do suggest preservation, not excavation:

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...The Takesin is a single-track trail with glimpses of the Bad River through the tall pines. Be sure to check out the view of the 80 foot-deep gorge at the scenic overlook. The Vahtera Trail rolls through a beautiful forest of birch and maple. The North Country National Scenic Trail skirts Loon Lake and crosses the marshland and woods to Mellen.

And,separately, does the Department of Natural Resources still stand behind its science and policy writing about the region? Is it still a "Conservation Opportunity Area?" Are its "Forest Connections" still considered vital? How about the "Species of Greatest Conservation Need habitat?" Still worth protecting?

Last year, I'd written:

DNR Recently Said Bad River, Nearby Lands Were Environmentally Significant 

Land and waters just two miles from Mellen - - a community at the edge of GTAC's proposed forest-clearing, acid-draining open-pit iron mine - - were described this way in DNR records as recently as 2009: 

Copper Falls State Park is located two miles northeast of the town of Mellen in north central Ashland County. The park comprises ca. 3,342 acres and surrounds the Bad River. The Bad River, beginning at Caroline Lake, flows through CFSP where it drops 29 feet over basaltic lava into a steep gorge. The river then joins with the Tyler Forks branch of the Bad River to flow over basaltic lava in a series of falls and rapids totaling 70 feet (Schultz 1986).... 

Copper Falls State Park and the Bad River were recognized by the Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan (WDNR 2006b) as being within the globally significant Bad River Conservation Opportunity Area. 

Conservation Opportunity Areas are places in Wisconsin that contain ecological features, natural communities or Species of Greatest Conservation Need habitat for which Wisconsin has a unique responsibility for protecting when viewed from the global, continental, upper Midwest, or state perspective (WDNR 2006b)... 

The Bad River was designated an Exceptional Resource Water (ERW) (WDNR 2006c) by the Wisconsin DNR. Waters designated as an ERW are surface waters that provide outstanding recreational opportunities, support valuable fisheries, have unique hydrologic or geologic features, have unique environmental settings, and are not significantly impacted by human activities (2006c).... 

Forested Connections  

Connecting large forested blocks to one another and to forests in other Ecological Landscapes is an important management opportunity for forests in the North Central Forest Ecological Landscape (WDNR 2005).  

Copper Falls State Park provides an important forested connection between the upland bedrock-influenced forests of the Penokee Range and clay-influenced forests and wetlands of the Superior Coastal Plain Ecological Landscape including the Bad River Reservation. The property also provides opportunities for old-growth management adjacent to the Bad River and embedded within a surrounding matrix of younger age-class forest. This diversity of forest types and age classes will provide habitat for a broad range of both plant and animal species.

So where is the DNR's stewardship advocacy and action on behalf of its "responsibility for protecting" these resources?