A Timeline of Environmental History and Activism in Minnesota When the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency approved the final permit for Canadian oil giant Enbridgeâs $2.6 billion Line 3 pipeline project, environmental activists led by the Giniw Collective immediately chained themselves to trees near the construction site, hoping to somehow delay or even halt the projectâagain. It was the latest altercation in a more than century-long struggle thatâs come to define Minnesotaâs very nature. Expand Images courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society (St. Anthony Falls, Lake Itasca, Superior forest, gibbs, cloquet, olson); from shutterstock: nikitsin.smugmug.com (Minnehaha falls); Jiang Hongyan (logs); Drakuliren (moose); Suriya KK (grass); Tracy Kerestesh (bison); IhorL (oil); Taras Hipp (snowmobile); Wildnerdpix (BWCA)