Legalectric

Back in October, there was a Federal Register notice published that the Forest Service has made an application to withdraw 225,378 acres from NEW (not existing) leasing, land in the Rainy River Watershed and near the BWCA. This application to withdraw the land from leasing follows the prior administration’s quashing of Obama administration withdrawal, thus opening up land for mineral leasing in 2018 — from press release (linked):

And now there’s another application to turn that around and again stop leasing Minnesota land for minerals exploration! GOOD! Let’s undo their undoing!

And some movement forward — on December 14, 2021, the Superior National Forest Supervisor’s Office issued Notice of three meetings for public comment.

CLICK HERE for the Superior National Forest page on this Application

There’s an article in the STrib now: Meetings set to gather public input on proposal to halt new mineral leases near Boundary Waters

The meetings a rather weird set up — you have to register to get the Zoom link, and specify if you want to comment, and then they’ll do a drawing to see who can comment! No guarantees that you can!

Here are the meeting dates and links to register for comment:

Register for the Meeting on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, CST at https://blm.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_z0ihp2ikSkSug9QnsaLjag

Register for the Meeting on Saturday, January 15, 2022, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., CST at https://blm.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_q9OWw5P3TSuvACoQ2o6gnQ

Register for the Meeting on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., CST at https://blm.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_rs2ueUYaQ-CoRO25s2bLqA

When you register, you’ll get a link to zoom right away, and then you’re notified whether you’ve been selected to make a comment 3 days before the meeting.

Documents thus far — only scoping:

Scoping

• 12-07-2021 2021-22958 BLM Federal Register Notice 10-21-2021 (PDF 204kb)
• 12-07-2021 Superior NF Mineral Withdrawal Request Letter 2021-09-28 (PDF 194kb)
• 12-07-2021 Superior National Forest Withdrawal Application 2021-09-28 (PDF 392kb)
• 12-07-2021 Appendix A Land List 2021-09-16 (PDF 134kb)
• 12-07-2021 Withdrawal Regulation 43 CFR 2300 (PDF 220kb)
• 12-07-2021 Appendix B Withdrawal Area Map 2021-09-16 (PDF 1379kb)
• 12-13-2021 2021-27036 BLM Federal Register Notice 12-14-2021 (PDF 192kb)
• 12-15-2021 Scoping Letter 12-15-2021 (PDF 141kb)

Something I’m wondering about is what exactly is affected, is it the brown on the map, is it everything within the red boundary, or is that brown existing leases that will not be included in this withdrawal? I’m just starting to look into this, so I’ll update this post as I figure it out.