Joe In The Arena - From Saving Yellowstone to Saving the Boundary Waters
How the Big Beautiful Bill Would Destroy America's Most Visited Wilderness
This is my inaugural Joe In The Arena post on Substack. The main intent of this page will be to discuss my experiences researching Theodore Roosevelt (TR) and the opportunities I’m pursuing to not only study him, but to get in the Arena with him and help to forge a better path forward for America. In 1910, TR spoke eloquently about the importance of being in the Arena. His words became some of the most inspirational of his life, certainly motivate me, and the excerpted portion below became known as the heart of his Man In The Arena speech.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”[i]
TR was way ahead of his time on Conservation and I’ve felt no closer to him than in my pursuit of helping save the Boundary Waters from the devastating impacts of sulfide-ore copper mining. The fact is, the Big Beautiful Bill currently before the U.S. Senate would be a Big Bad Disaster for the Boundary Waters. The House bill passed a few weeks ago includes a rescission of the twenty year 225,000+ acre withdrawal from mining of lands in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters, opens the area wide to mining by reinstating and issuing leases, and prevents judicial review. Yes, I said the last part correctly - the bill PREVENTS judicial review. With the Boundary Waters being the most visited wilderness area in America, and the proposed mining being done there by a foreign controlled entity, these provisions by definition put the interests of the American people last. They must be stripped out of the bill!
Last week I visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Yellowstone National Park, which were both important terrain that helped to forge TR’s perspective on Conservation. Yellowstone, more than any other place, taught TR about the importance of protecting America;’s most highly unique public lands. In fact, it was a core early mission of the Boone and Crockett Club he co-founded in 1887. In the spring of 1903, from the site of the Yellowstone Arch outside of Gardiner, Wyoming, TR gave another of his more famous speeches. This time, he focused on Conservation.
“The Yellowstone Park is something absolutely unique in the world, so far as I know. Nowhere else in any civilized country is there to be found such a tract of veritable wonderland made accessible to all visitors, where at the same time not only the scenery of the wilderness, but the wild creatures of the Park are scrupulously preserved…The creation and preservation of such a great natural playground in the interest of our people as a whole is a credit to the nation; but above all a credit to Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. It has been preserved with wise foresight. The scheme of its preservation is noteworthy in its essential democracy…This Park was created, and is now administered, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people…The only way that the people as a whole can secure to themselves and their children the enjoyment in perpetuity of what the Yellowstone Park has to give, is by assuming ownership in the name of the nation and by jealously safeguarding and preserving the scenery, the forests, and the wild creatures.”[ii]
The Boundary Waters is just as unique and just as special as Yellowstone. For America, protecting it should be our Conservation priority as we move into our second quarter millennium. When I was at Yellowstone last week, I sought out the cornerstone put in place when TR gave his speech there 122 years ago. With all the scratches marking it up, it appears to have been vandalized. The sad feeling I had is the same I get when I think about a foreign company destroying what is now the most precious and ineffectively preserved wilderness system in America. Bottom line, I don’t want the Boundary Waters to be ruined. Like TR said with Yellowstone, I want the Boundary Waters to remain “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” in perpetuity. Very simply, as currently drafted, the Bill Beautiful Bill provides a clear roadmap to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Please join me in the Arena and help to save the Boundary Waters. Let’s make its protection our own individual cornerstones of Conservationism. Please call your member of Congress and ask them to ensure the devastating provisions on copper mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters are taken out of the bill. Otherwise, for America’s most visited wilderness area, it will soon become one Big Bad Disaster.
Joe Banavige is from Independence, Minnesota. He has had an extensive career in both the public (Army, State Department, and Department of Defense) and private (management consulting, investment banking, and business development/leadership) sectors. He is currently working on a three-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt and is a volunteer for the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters.
[i] Excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt Speech, April 1910, Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record/PrintFull?libID=o63004
[ii] Speech at Yellowstone National Park, Theodore Roosevelt, April 24, 1903, Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library, https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record/PrintFull?libID=o289720