By: John Imsdahl

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), whose state does not contain any international boundaries, has introduced a bill into the United States Senate that comes with major implications for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as well as other wilderness areas and national parks across the country.

The bill, titled the Border Lands Conservation Act, would give the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies unprecedented access to wilderness areas within 100 miles of the Canadian and Mexican borders. This bill would amend the Wilderness Act to grant Homeland Security the ability to conduct operations including “accessing structures, installations and roads, executing search and rescue operations, using motor vehicles, motorboats and motorized equipment, conducting patrols on foot or horseback…” as well as the ability to “deploy tactical infrastructure.”

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which stretches across roughly 150 miles of the northern border between Minnesota and Canada, is a designated wilderness where roads, motors (with a few exceptions) and other development is prohibited. Senator Lee’s new bill would amend the Wilderness Act such that the BWCAW could be crisscrossed with roads to give access to Border Patrol agents.

Many environmental groups and public lands advocacy groups have voiced opposition to this new bill, including Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, who called the bill “reckless” and stated that it “would gut decades of protection…” in a recent Facebook post. The MeatEater blog, created by famous hunter and sportsman Steven Rinella, appeared critical of the bill and asked “…who is Lee trying to please?” noting that it may be hard for Lee to find widespread support among his Republican colleagues, especially those that represent border states.

Co-sponsors to the bill include Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz is the only current sponsor of the bill who represents a state that has an international land border which would be affected by the bill. However, Texas does not have any designated wilderness areas on the border.

Currently, the bill has been introduced into the Energy and Natural Resources Committee but has not been moved to a vote. You can follow any process on this bill as well as sign up for updates by clicking here to visit the bill’s page on congress.gov.