Protect the Porkies is a collective of concerned citizens from around the Upper Peninsula, the great state of Michigan, and beyond, who are uniting to resist the development of Copperwood, an inexperienced Canadian company's proposal to mine next to and underneath Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park and store 40+ million tons of waste in unprecedented proximity to Lake Superior, all for the sake of a few boom-and-bust jobs and copper to be shipped out of country.
Protect the Porkies is just the messenger. Now that you've got the message, what will YOU do to help?
Photo by Ethan Allen
Photo by Anna Monkmeyer
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Photo by John Dempsey
Photo by Alex Klanke
Photo by Margo Lakin
Photo by Jennifer Sageman
Photo by Nathan A. Ortiz
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Photo by Murielle Garbarino
Photo by Athena Stanley
Photo by Summer Dye
Photo by Sol Anzorena
Photo by Bob Vance
Photo by Garrett Waite
Photo by Sierra Snyder
Photo by Sierra Snyder
Photo by Sol Anzorena
Photo by Ethan Allen
Photo by Rachel Bailo
Photo by Benjamin Suydam
Photo by Sol Anzorena
Photo by Anna Monkmeyer
Photo by Ava Hawthorne
Photo by Ethan Allen
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Photo by Alex Timmins
Photo by Gwendolyn Rickauer
Photo by Bob Vance
Photo by Rozalynd Triplett
Photo by Angela Schutt
Photo by Nathan A. Ortiz
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Lake Superior is, by surface area, the largest source of surface freshwater on Earth. Known as the sacred Gichigami to the Anishinaabe Nation, Superior is the wildest of all Great Lakes and still clean enough many drink its waters unfiltered.
At a time when our planet is growing warmer and drier, and armed conflicts are being fought and exacerbated over access to freshwater, does it really make sense to endanger a priceless entity of international import?
With a copper purity of 1.45%, 98.55% of all extracted material would be waste, containing mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and led, comprising 40+ million tons in total, to be stored forever on downward-sloping topography, in unprecedented proximity to Lake Superior.
A mining engineer with the U.S. Forest Service says such facilities "may require care and maintenance exceeding 1,000 years."
Ranked both as Michigan's favorite State Park and among the most beautiful in the entire country, the Porcupine Mountains are both a sensitive and a world-renowned outdoor recreation destination.
Set aside specifically to protect from industrial interests, the Porkies contain the largest remaining tract of original, old growth forest in mainland Michigan, including the largest population of old growth eastern hemlocks in the nation.
The proposed Copperwood mine site would be immediately adjacent to the State Park. In addition to mining next to the State Park, meeting notes with the DNR reveal that they would seek to drill directly beneath Park property.
A mine exhaust vent a mere 150 feet from the Park would spew particulate matter containing benzene, formaldehyde, arsenic, cobalt, and more, and the 323-acre waste basin would be visible from the Lake of the Clouds Overlook, as well as from Copper Peak and the North Country Trail (see comment 35).
Longest of all national hiking trails, the NCT spans nearly 5,000 miles from North Dakota to Vermont. It is a cornerstone of this region's national heritage, passing from the Black River through the Ottawa National Forest and on into the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness.
The 323-acre mine waste basin would be 244 football fields in area and higher than the Statue of Liberty from toes to torch tip. In addition to being visible from space, it would be easily perceptible from the North Country Trail, a mere 500 feet away, along with other influences such as rock grinding, conveyance systems, exhaust vents, heavy machinery, non-stop industrial traffic, subterranean blasting, and more.
Before reaching construction, the project requires the installation of cell towers, a 25-mile power grid rollout, and upgrading humble County Road 519 into a heavy industrial speedway.
Cell towers at a place we come to get a break from our devices? Mining traffic where we come to slow down and listen to soothing birdsong and murmuring brooks? Long after the mine boards up shop in 11 years, this "preliminary infrastructure" will remain, opening the floodgates to ongoing development which will forever change the character of a wild and cherished region.
Although based on private property, mining influences from air and water contamination, noise and light pollution, subterranean blasting, and mining traffic could radiate for miles beyond artificial map lines. Additionally, habitat destruction and physical structures (like the 323-acre waste basin) would create barriers to migration. All of these factors — along with proposed cell towers, power grid expansion, and industrial road upgrades — would disrupt the interconnectivity between surrounding areas and degrade the ecological vitality of the Porcupine Mountains, the Black River, the North Country Trail, and beyond.
There is no ideal place for an operation as disruptive as a mine, but there are certainly worse places, and the juncture of a famed national hiking trail, a world-renowned old growth wilderness, and a freshwater sea has got to be the very bottom of the list.
The term in the literature for an area to be degraded for large-scale industrial activity a Sacrifice Zone. Is this truly an area we want to sacrifice?
A 2024 model by the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission predicts that, in the event of a rupture at Copperwood's mine waste facility (the closest in history to Lake Superior), a flood of tailings over ten meters in depth could surge into both Lake Superior and the State Park.
The mining company disputes the quantity of waste discharge predicted by the model. In the end, no models are ever completely accurate (that's what makes them models, but we must ask: is there any quantity of waste flowing into Lake Superior which should be tolerated for the sake of short-term, boom-and-bust jobs and copper shipped out of country?
Although rare, tailings dams have ruptured all over the world, even in so-called "First World" nations, even at state-of-the-art facilities designed and maintained by experts at the tops of the field.
What do all ruptures have in common? None of them were predicted.
A report from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials reveals that Michigan's Dam Safety Program is "extremely understaffed to perform the mission of dam safety as required by rules, legislation, and best practice" (page 6).
A mining engineer with the U.S. Forest Service says such facilities "may require care and maintenance exceeding 1,000 years."
Since the mine is projected to run only 10.7 years, the company has designed all infrastructure — including the waste dam — to anticipate 1-in-100 year storm events, despite the fact that there have been two 1-in-1000 year storm events in the immediate area in just the last decade (1,2), Clearly, "thousand-year storms" need to be renamed, and assuming that another will not happen during the mine life is the definition of a gamble.
The mining company claims the waste basin would withstand such a storm, but many claims are made to get a project funded and launched, and none of the tailings dam ruptures in history were ever predicted in advance. Considering the waste dam's unprecedented proximity to both Lake Superior and Porcupine Mountains State Park, is it really worth the risk?
Copperwood's concentrate would be shipped to Canada for further refinement (page 19-3) There are currently no contracts in place to ensure its return to Michigan or even the United States.
Although the U.S. Geological Survey now categorizes copper as a "critical mineral" due to supply chain vulnerability, an important nuance that Copperwood proponents fail to mention is that this vulnerability only applies to refined copper (copper which has passed through all stages of processing to reach 100% purity). Copperwood's ore will be processed in Canada, thus producing a critical mineral for another country.
Meanwhile, mined copper — what will be produced at Copperwood — is still listed at a negative supply vulnerability risk (page 37), meaning no need to develop widely opposed new mines at abominable locations.
The most comprehensive study ever conducted reveals that mines in rural communities led to positive long-term outcomes in just 29% of cases, and most of those came from before 1982.
The study concludes: "To the extent to which past experience is to be our guide, there is surprisingly little evidence that mining will bring about economic good times, while there is a good deal of evidence for expecting just the opposite."
The research of Harvard Economist James Stock, former advisor to President Obama, concludes that, due to disruptions to amenity and outdoor recreation industries, any employment and income benefits of copper mining are short-lived compared to long-term economic decline.
Just think about it: if mining was so good for the economy, then the Upper Peninsula should be the richest place in the country. Instead, it's one of the most impoverished, because the bust is always bigger and longer than the boom.
Professor Stock concludes, "In 89% of cases copper mining ends up being a negative for jobs and incomes."
The text of the proposed Michigan grant to the mining company— three times rejected by the Michigan legislature due to pushback from around the state and nation — defines a "new job" as needing to last for only six months, with many positions going to specialized non-residents.
The text also states that the company hopes to synchronize with the closure of Eagle Mine in Marquette County in order to "retain the talent pool." Is lateral job transfer from another county the same as job creation?
Boom-and-bust economics is not unlike the fleeting kick of a drug high followed by a long-lasting crash, with chronic dependence leading to depleted economic foundations and decreased living standards for communities.
Unfortunately, this is more than an analogy: mining workers show the highest rates of alcoholism and opiate overdose of any industry, a tragedy which continues long after the mine boards up shop.
We are told ad nauseam that "the Western UP's economy needs mining," but the facts tell a different story.
A 2013 study entitled, "The Economic Implications of Renewed Copper Mining in the Western Upper Peninsula," reveals that the Western UP's per capita income is growing faster than the rest of Michigan and nearly on par with the national average (left) despite the loss of thousands of mining jobs in the region — or perhaps because of it (below).
The secret that mining proponents and their political allies don't want you to know is that we don't need them.
The chart to the right shows that as jobs have declined in "export sectors" (industries like mining which ship wealth out of the area), they have been more than replaced by "locally-oriented" sectors which keeps the wealth where it belongs: with the local people.
All levels of society, from regular folks to elected officials, should be doing what we can to encourage this positive trend, in which our economy is not captive to outside "saviors" with little vested interest in the area, but instead is gardened slowly and sustainably for the benefit of all.
Given the ecological, historical, and recreational value of the area; given the proximity of a unique old growth ecosystem, the largest of its kind in the country; given the presence of multiple sources of fresh water, such as the Presque Isle River with its majestic waterfalls and Lake Superior where our kids go swimming, whose waters are shared with states, countries, and Tribal Nations; given all of this and more, we must ask one last time:
Photo by Jennifer and Jeffrey Dobbs
Photo by Jennifer and Jeffrey Dobbs
Photo by Lindsay Jones
Photo by Lindsay Jenson
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Photo by Madeline Dunbar
Photo by Jennifer Sageman
Photo by Halle Lazzeroni
Photo by Carly Reil
Photo by Carly Reil
Photo by Sierra Snyder
Photo by Stephanie Latos
Photo by Ally O'Neal
Photo by Sierra Snyder
Photo by Bob Vance
Photo by Jennifer and Jeffrey Dobbs
Photo by Bryan Mitchell
Photo by Sierra Snyder
Despite having less than $30 million cash-on-hand for a project requiring $450 million — and despite lacking the power grid, cell towers, heavy industrial roads, and other preliminary infrastructure to begin operations — this entirely speculative venture has already inflicted lasting, real-world damage: dozens of acres of forest have been clear cut, multiple streams have been forever rerouted, and over 60 acres of wetlands have been destroyed, among the largest totals in Michigan permitting history.
Despite massive opposition from around Michigan and beyond, despite lacking $400+ million in startup capital and important preliminary infrastructure, Michigan's environmental regulatory agency EGLE continues to issue major and minor permits for the Copperwood Project, allowing for the destruction of wetlands, streams, and forest.
But contrary to the company's claim of being "fully permitted," key permits for the Tailings Disposal Facility have not yet been acquired, and their wastewater discharge permit is currently expired and under consideration for renewal.
Although the price of copper is on the rise, the Copperwood Project continues to struggle to raise funds. After dwindling to just $8 million in the bank by November 2025, the mining company sold off their remaining shares of the proposed White Pine North mine for a net gain of $17 million, bringing their total in liquid capital to $25 million (as of January 2026). This may be sufficient to keep the Copperwood Project on life support for a year or two, but now that their secondary White Pine North assets have been exhausted, the company must secure a significant injection of outside capital or be forced to close operations.
Thus, the next 1-2 years are crucial in escalating resistance to dissuade investors and push the project into dormancy.
In 2024 and 2025 the State of Michigan was considering using taxpayer dollars to advance the controversial Copperwood Mine, by allocating $50 million for the rollout of cell towers, heavy industrial roads, and the power grid right in the buffer zone of mainland Michigan's largest and most beloved old growth wilderness area.
Protect the Porkies led a coordinate campaign consisting of 100+ organizations and many thousands of normal folks, all uniting to communicate firmly to Michigan lawmakers that we would not stand for such a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars. And the result? The funding proposal was defeated not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES!
In 2025 the Protect the Porkies campaign held a songwriting contest for compositions related to Clean Water, Wild Nature, and Resistance to Ecological Destruction.
Over 50 beautiful original musical pieces were submitted, which were then organized into three compilation albums, with accompanying artwork by Sol Anzorena.
You can hear this wonderful music yourself, free of charge, by clicking this link. Please consider making a small contribution through BandCamp or our donation page to support more creative contests in the future.
Protect the Porkies is run entirely by volunteers dedicating considerable time and energy to this important cause. As a small team, we strive to make efficient and constructive use of all funding. Your contributions are crucial our mission.
You may also mail checks to this address:
PO Box 6
Wakefield, MI
49968
