We’ve been fighting killing contests — the Yote Slams, the Coyote Derbies, the Vermin Roundups. We’ve been fighting the Wisconsin wolf hunt. And we’ve been winning. But the forces behind these fights were never just about killing wolves. They were always about what comes after.

When organizations like Hunter Nation mobilize the hunting community to support wildlife killing contests, they frame it as heritage, tradition, culture. What they don’t advertise is who’s writing the checks.

Corporate interests connected to extractive industries — groups like Americans for Prosperity — have long used trophy hunting culture as a political battering ram. Delist the wolves. Gut the Endangered Species Act. Strip state conservation funding. Open the land.

In Wisconsin, we’re already living the consequences. Conservation funding is quietly disappearing. Our voice in the process — through the Conservation Congress — is being hollowed out. And while killing contests wage war on wolves and coyotes, the same political machine is setting the table for something far larger.

Last week, Trump signed legislation ending a 20-year federal mining ban near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness — handing Twin Metals, a subsidiary of Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, a path to build a copper-nickel mine just miles from one of America’s most treasured wild places.

The Senate vote was 50–49. Even some Democrats with deep ties to Iron Range mining culture had to be pressured to stand with the wilderness. The battle now shifts to state agencies and legislatures in Minnesota and Michigan — which still have real legal authority to stop this mine before a single permit is issued.

Here’s what copper-nickel sulfide mining actually does to a place like this:

• Poisons the water — permanently. Acid mine drainage doesn’t stay put. Heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and lead leach into groundwater and connected waterways for generations. There is no cleanup. There is no restoration.
• Kills fish, amphibians, and aquatic life. Copper at concentrations as low as a few micrograms per liter disrupts reproduction and growth in fish species. Entire food chains collapse downstream.
• Destroys habitat for endangered species. The Boundary Waters region is critical habitat for Canada lynx, gray wolves, common loons, and the federally endangered northern long-eared bat — already ravaged by white-nose syndrome. Forest clearing for mine infrastructure destroys the last refuges these animals have.
• Wrecks the wilderness economy. Over 350 local businesses depend on a healthy Boundary Waters. A Harvard study found the mining ban would generate billions more in economic value — and 4,500 more jobs — than the mine ever would.

Now connect the dots. Wolves are being delisted not because they’re a threat — but because their habitat overlaps with the land these corporations want. Gut the ESA. Eliminate wolf protections. Clear out the legal barriers to extraction. It is one machine with many levers.

The killing contests soften the public. The trophy hunting lobby builds the political will. The corporate money funds the campaigns. And a Chilean mining conglomerate stands ready to profit from American wilderness.

We are an all-volunteer 501(c)(3). No corporate backers. No industry ties. No political debts. What we have is a proven record of winning fights exactly like this one — at the state level, where these battles are decided.

We helped stop the Wisconsin wolf hunt. We know how state agencies respond to organized public pressure. We know how to build coalitions that hold. And right now, we are working across the Great Lakes region — in Minnesota, in Michigan, and here in Wisconsin — to make sure the Boundary Waters doesn’t become the template for what comes next.

We are the only organization in the Great Lakes region focused exclusively on protecting endangered species and wild places at the state level. And we need your support to keep fighting.