We take on many of the biggest environmental and health challenges of our time and stick with them. The law makes change.
Because the earth needs a good lawyer.
We take on many of the biggest environmental and health challenges of our time and stick with them. The law makes change.
Because the earth needs a good lawyer.
The 47th Administration
Joseph Goldstein found healing and purpose in the Boundary Waters. Now, the Trump administration says it wants to open the wilderness area up to mining.
By Keith Rushing & Jessica A. Knoblauch  /  Midwest Office
At six years old, Joseph Goldstein took his first family canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness — more than one million acres of immaculate lakes, rivers, and forests in Northeastern Minnesota. The experience left a lasting mark, later guiding him into a life of activism to defend it.
“It was amazing,” Goldstein, now an advocate for the Boundary Waters, remembers. “I was instantly in love with the wilderness. One of my clearest memories from that first trip was crying when I was told it was time to leave.”
Each year, roughly 150,000 people like Goldstein travel to this treasured wilderness ecosystem, home to hundreds of species like wolves, moose, loons, and lynx, and some of the purest waters on earth. But today the Boundary Waters are under threat. The Trump administration has said it wants to open this wilderness area up to toxic mining as part of a broader attack on our public lands.
While these threats are grave, they are not new. Goldstein, now 24, has been helping to protect the Boundary Waters from toxic mining interests that could harm it for nearly a decade.
At 13, Goldstein began battling leukemia. While undergoing chemotherapy, and the nausea and pain that came with it, he would think back on his time in the wilderness — the challenges it presented and the lessons it taught him — for grounding and strength.
During his nearly four years of treatment, he worked with Save the Boundary Waters — a campaign working to protect the Boundary Waters from mining. During that time, he took multiple trips to Washington, D.C., lobbying members of Congress and cabinet officials. He went on to form Kids for the Boundary Waters, recruiting other kids to join the effort to protect the area.

Goldstein’s memories of summer canoe camping trips with his family, paddling and portaging from lake to lake, fishing, swimming, and exploring the vast wilderness has grounded his advocacy work.
“It’s this experience of being out there, being disconnected, being away from everyone not having contact with the outside world,” he recalls. Today, as he pursues a master’s degree in environmental studies, he believes fervently that the waters, forests and species deserve protection.
“Wilderness is important for those who love and cherish it, and it is also important for its own sake,” says Goldstein. “It can’t protect itself. It relies on us to recognize its value and safeguard it.”
For years, Earthjustice has successfully protected the Boundary Waters on multiple fronts from dangerous and short-sighted hard rock mining. We will continue to defend it as part of our broader fight to protect public lands.
Here’s what else to know about this treasured ecosystem and the fight to defend it.
A rainbow over the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northeastern Minnesota. (Photo courtesy Joseph Goldstein)
A loon spreads its wings in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. (Brad Zweerink / Earthjustice)
Canoeing the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern Minnesota. (Brad Zweerink / Earthjustice)
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