Mining is at the center of life in northern Minnesota. Despite this centrality, much ink has been spilled over recent plans to build copper-nickel mines in the Iron Range. It’s a different kind of mining for Minnesota, laden with extreme rewards – and serious risks.

The CEPP will host a panel discussion equally representing both sides of this important and contentious issue. The goal is to create an open discussion in which many sides can exchange ideas/concerns in a respectful atmosphere.

The panel:

(1) Don Fosnacht – NRRI, Director of CARTD:

Fosnacht is the director of the Center for Applied Research and Technology Development. He is a metallurgical engineer with a broad background that includes minerals extraction and minerals processing, extractive and physical metallurgy and analytical chemistry. He is also a seasoned technical manager with 20+ years experience in managing and directing research programs and technology development.
He has been trained in project management, total quality management, continuous improvement processes along with various statistical tools and methodologies. He consults with various clients on business improvement specializing in yield and profitability enhancement and cost reduction. He is a partner in Steel Profitability Consulting, Inc. (a firm that serves the metals industry in business enhancement).

(2) Betsy Daub – Friends of BWCA, Policy Director:

Daub has extensive experience in conservation policy,including six years at Audubon Minnesota, where she served as Forest Program Director, Acting State Director, and Senior Director for Conservation Programs. Her work at Audubon included substantial efforts regarding management of the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Most recently, Daub taught science in St. Paul schools.

(3) Nancy Schuldt — Water Projects Coordinator, Fond du Lac:

Schuldt serves as the Fond du Lac Water Projects Coordinator. Her water quality monitoring and quality assurance plans were critical to the finalization of Tribal water quality standards, and provided a model for other EPA Region 5 Tribes entering similar phases of their own water projects. She directed research into fish contaminants and sediment chemistry to characterize mercury impacts to Fond du Lac Band members, participates in numerous local and regional working groups to ensure the tribal perspective is represented, and initiated a cooperative wastewater management project with the non-tribal community to protect Big Lake, a heavily developed lake on the Reservation. She is also responsible for the tribe’s nonpoint source management program, and environmental review of mining and energy industry impacts to trust resources.

(4) Tom Landwehr  — DNR Commissioner:

Before being appointed (by Governor Dayton) as DNR commissioner, Landwehr was the assistant state director for The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota, North and South Dakota. Before leaving the DNR in 1999, Landwehr worked under the agency for 17 years as a research biologist, wildlife manager and Wetland Wildlife Program leader.  He’s also been a state conservation director for Ducks Unlimited in Minnesota and Iowa.

For more information on UMD’s Center for Ethics and Public Policy,
see: https://sites.google.com/a/d.umn.edu/cepp/