On May 8, WaterLegacy and Indigenous and Non-Native leaders, harvesters, and residents of Aitkin County and the Tamarack region are celebrating the completion of the report, “Wild Rice (Manoomin) in the Tamarack Region: Value, Abundance, and Need for Protection,” and the launch of a campaign to defend their wild rice. Local wild rice is threatened by the proposed Talon Metals/Rio Tinto nickel mine and continuing efforts by Minnesota legislators to undo legal protections of wild rice from toxic sulfates.

On February 3, 2025, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued a unanimous decision reversing and remanding the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) decision denying an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for expansion of the Mile Post 7 tailings basin and dams. Mile Post 7 tailings dams are Class 1 hazard level dams located directly above the cities of Beaver Bay and Silver Bay and less than three miles from Lake Superior.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that their review of PolyMet’s copper-nickel sulfide ore permit to mine will be suspended until August 2025. This decision delays final briefing on whether the DNR should adopt Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) James LaFave’s November 2023 recommendation to deny PolyMet’s permit to mine since the proposed tailings basin storage plan would violate Minnesota’s Reactive Mine Waste Rule.

LEARN WHY SCIENTISTS who worked on the 1970s Copper-Nickel Study are now calling for a NEW Tamarack Region Sulfide Ore Study. A Regional Study, rather than just site-specific environmental review is needed to protect the Tamarack area, the downstream St. Croix and Mississippi River watersheds, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities Area from pollution and environmental effects resulting from Talon Metals/Rio Tinto “district-scale” sulfide ore mining.

The ”present deposit” proposed by Talon for environmental review is only one-tenth of 1% of the total mining area.

Ask Governor Tim Walz and DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen to require that the Environmental Impact Statement evaluate the full and cumulative impacts of mining the entire “district scale” Tamarack Mineral Intrusion.