From the Editor’s Desk: Giving Back to the Boundary Waters

Girl Scouts has always played a pivotal role in my life. I was raised by a troop leader, my mom, and every summer she would ship my sister and I off to sleep-away camp. Two weeks spent in the wilderness with people I’d never met, counselors from all over the world and campfire songs that would be stuck in my head for the entirety of the next school year. 

These adventures took me all over the United States. To the mountains of Kentucky by foot, the Allegheny Passage of Pennsylvania by bike and — most memorable of all — through the Boundary Waters of Minnesota via Canoe. I cannot express the profound way each of these trips impacted me. 

Ten years later, the deep conversations held under a tarp during a rainstorm, the family of turtles we shared a campsite with on the third night, the bald eagles circling overhead and the ache of my shoulders from the backpacks we carried through the Boundary Waters are as clear in my mind as the unfiltered water we drank directly from the lakes every day. 

While these memories will stay with me for the rest of my life, the Boundary Waters — which covers more than 150 miles of lakes and swamps in the Superior National Forest — may not experience the same level of security. The U.S. House of Representatives voted Jan. 21 to remove a federal ban on mining in the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, The Associated Press reported. 

The bill now passes on to the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. The removal of this ban could lead to devastating effects for the wildlife in the area, which until now has gone largely untouched. 

An area which has been one of the most popular destinations for wildlife enthusiasts for decades — and a place that I hold so close to my heart — could face irreparable damage. 

No amount of money made from mining could ever match the value of the lessons learned by visitors. Girl Scouts of the future deserve the chance to learn about the earth and about themselves in the same unfiltered environment I was lucky enough to experience. 

This week in The Phoenix, read about the Rogers Park communities participation in the national strike against federal immigration agent activity in news, consider the importance of having accessible third spaces in opinion, hear a review on the release of the movie “Melania” in arts and get the details about the first men’s basketball win of 2026 in sports.