Jimmy Carter remembered for protecting Minnesota's Boundary Waters
Jimmy Carter gives a speech in 1979. (File photo / Getty Images)
(FOX 9) - After his passing at the age of 100, Jimmy Carter is being remembered as the president who helped keep the Boundary Waters what it is today.
Remembering Jimmy Carter
What we know: The former president passed away on Sunday at the age of 100 at his home in Plains, Georgia.
Carter was elected in 1976, serving a single term in the White House. During his time in office, Carter signed the Boundary Waters Wilderness Act.
Boundary Waters Wilderness Act of 1978
The backstory: The Boundary Waters Wilderness Act was a massive piece of legislation for northern Minnesota.
The act banned logging, mining, snowmobiles use, boat use in some areas, and created a buffer zone around the wilderness area. The act was an extension of another piece of legislation signed by Lyndon B. Johnson that offered protections for wilderness areas like the Boundary Waters. But advocates said that legislation left holes closed in the 1978 bill.
By the numbers: The Boundary Waters contains more than 1 million acres of protected wildlife areas along the United States-Canada border in northeast Minnesota, offering canoeing, hiking, and camping.
What they're saying: In a statement on Sunday, Chris Knopf, the executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters, wrote: "President Carter was an environmentalist who cared deeply about his country’s natural spaces — even if it cost him politically. This will no doubt be one of his lasting legacies. He set the tone, and in the 1970s, Friends of the Boundary Waters worked with his administration to shape and pass the Boundary Waters Wilderness Act. By signing this bill, President Carter put in place the protections that made the Boundary Waters what it is today. This was not an easy thing to do. For many in his own party, this was not a popular bill. Timber and extractive industries exerted a huge amount of influence, but in the end, Carter championed a bill that has had a profound impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who love wild places and who have been touched by the splendor of the Boundary Waters."
Protecting the Boundary Waters
What's next?: In recent years, advocates for the Boundary Waters have fought to protect the Boundary Waters headwaters from mining.
The Biden administration rescinded federal mining leases in the town of Ely near Birch Lake, which flows into the Boundary Waters, and last year issued a 20-year mining ban for areas upstream of the Boundary Waters. Advocacy group Friends of the Boundary Waters are worried that president-elect Trump, whose administration originally reinstated the leases, could again reverse course after he takes office in 2025.
Supporters of the mine say the project will help supply America with metals that are essential in modern society, like copper, nickel, platinum, and cobalt, all of which are in high demand for use in tech devices. Currently, the United States relies on foreign supplies for these elements.