ST PAUL — A program that has connected thousands of Minnesota students to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness lost its state funding this month after Republican senators accused the organization behind it of using public money for political purposes, a charge the group’s director flatly denies.
The Minnesota Senate voted 34-29 in the final days of the legislative session to strip $1,252,000 from Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, cutting off the next three years of a program that would have sent more than 600 students on overnight canoe trips into the BWCAW and provided hands-on environmental education to 12,000 more.
Chris Knopf, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters, said the decision conflates two entirely separate aspects of the organization’s work.
“This is public funds serving a public purpose,” he said. “The state grant supports education programs for Minnesota students: to connect kids to the Boundary Waters through virtual classrooms, field days, and wilderness canoe trips. That’s it.”
The group, which maintains an office on Sheridan St. in downtown Ely, also conducts advocacy work opposing copper-nickel sulfide mining near the BWCAW, including the proposed Twin Metals mine at the edge of the wilderness. Knopf was direct about that work. “We’re not anti-mining per se, but we’re pro clean water.”
Criticism centered on video that Friends of the Boundary Waters posted before a U.S. Senate vote in April on lifting a federal mining ban in the Boundary Waters watershed. The video encouraged viewers to attend a public hearing on mining threats. At the end, the logo of the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, the state lottery-funded mechanism that would have paid for the education program, briefly appeared.
Sen. Keri Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, led the push to remove the funding on the Senate floor, calling it a misuse of public funds.
The vote passed with support from all Senate Republicans and one Democrat, John Hoffman of Champlin. Sen. Grant Hauschild, who represents Ely, abstained. Hauschild told the Star Tribune it would have been impossible to get the bipartisan support needed to pass the broader funding legislation without cutting Friends of the Boundary Waters from the list.
“In this effort to advance the interests of this mining conglomerate that owns Twin Metals, the proponents are hurting Minnesota kids and are punishing us for our advocacy,” Knopf said of the vote.
The program, called No Boundaries to the Boundary Waters, has served more than 16,000 students since it launched in 2019 and has built a scaffolded model that starts with virtual lessons aligned to state science and social studies standards, moves through field days teaching skills like map and compass navigation and fire building, and culminates in multi-day canoe trips for students who have never set foot in the BWCAW. Last year, 5,790 students participated, with over 200 going on overnight trips.
The grant’s work plan, submitted to the Legislature last November, included a part-time staff position based in Ely and a seasonal intern at the same location, as well as ongoing partnerships with area outfitters. A related but separate grant, Boundary Waters Is Our Backyard, has supported local programming including getting Iron Range kids onto the water each year. That grant is up for renewal and is not affected by the current cut.
Knopf said the organization plans to stay active in the community regardless. They’ll be in the Ely Fourth of July parade, and have a film screening planned for Aug. 14 in Ely, along with a bike ride on the Mesabi Trail later that month.
“We protect the wilderness, we connect people to the wilderness, and we want to support the communities that are gateways to the Boundary Waters,” Knopf said. “To punish Minnesota kids on behalf of a Chilean mining conglomerate is just way out of bounds.”
Friends of the Boundary Waters are now trying to fund the program through private philanthropy, and they have roughly $400,000 to cover. They intend to reapply for state funding in the next grant cycle. Knopf said this summer’s trips will still go forward.
“We are committed to making this happen,” he said. “This is one of our three main pillars. We’re not going anywhere.”
Donations can be made at friends-bwca.org.