The House passed controversial legislation yesterday to exchange a tract in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota for 86,000 state-owned acres in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

H.R. 5544, introduced by Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), was approved 225-189, largely along party lines.

The bill would allow the state to trade lands locked in wilderness that was established in 1978 with developable lands that can generate revenue for schools through logging, mining and other activities.

"This bill will rectify a decades-old injustice that was imposed by Congress during the Carter administration to ensure that funding for schools and education in Minnesota is carried on," Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said on the House floor yesterday.

But the bill's opponents -- notably, the Minnesota Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Association -- are concerned the exchange could impair recreation opportunities in a large part of the Superior National Forest.

The bill was criticized by Democrats for failing to identify which lands would be traded and opened for development.

"This is first time in the history of Congress to bring a land exchange to the floor without a map specifying what lands are to be exchanged," Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) said.

In order to expedite the exchange, the bill also includes language that would exempt the trade from review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which Democrats said cuts the public out of the process.

"A vote for the bill without NEPA is a vote to shroud this deal in darkness so that its potential impacts on habitat, water quality and recreation remain hidden from public view," said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), ranking member of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee.

Cravaack said the specific tracts in the deal are identified in state documents and environmental review would be required of any specific development projects. The federal legislation implements an exchange plan approved by the state Legislature earlier this year.

Given concerns about the impacts logging or mining would have on recreation, a stakeholder group has been working on an alternative agreement since 2009 that proposes selling two-thirds of the trust land to the federal government, while exchanging one-third.

Hastings said such a proposal could cost taxpayers millions of dollars, while the exchange would cost nothing. And he described the concerns about waiving NEPA as "crocodile tears."

Four Democratic amendments to ensure that the deal protects tribal-access rights, guarantees a public environmental review and ensures the use of standard property-appraisal processes were all rejected, mostly along party lines.

With no companion legislation in the Senate, it is unlikely the bill will move forward this year.

Conservation groups criticized the measure as another House Republican effort to undermine wilderness protections.

"This bill would facilitate expanded mining on our public lands without regard to environmental consequences," said Paul Spitler, director of wilderness policy at the Wilderness Society, in a statement. "The pollution from mining would directly impact the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, in addition to other recreation havens surrounding the area, like Lake Superior."