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Good To Know: Not The First Environmental Decision

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Oct 20, 2008 10:46 pm US/Central

Good To Know: Not The First Environmental Decision

Reporting
Don Shelby
(WCCO) In the general election we get to vote in a new government -- a sort of scheduled revolution. Sometimes we get the government we want, and sometimes we don't. Don Shelby just got back from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area with a reminder.

Back in the 1920's, a Minnesota businessman decided to dam up the border lakes, raise some of the lake levels by 80 feet, and build a bunch of power plants to run logging operations and cut down the old growth forests in what we know now as the BWCA.

Thing of it is, the state legislature voted, en masse, for the proposal. Jobs and energy. Who could argue? The preservation of a bunch of lakes and woods nobody but the folks near Ely ever used? No brainer.

What if that had happened? What if the government had been that shortsighted?

The BWCA would not exist. It wouldn't be the most visited wilderness area in America. It would be logged and mined and dammed… damned.

So 30 years ago this fall, a different government protected it for the rest of us. History like that influences our vote in November. Do you vote for today or vote for tomorrow?

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.