Public comments submitted as part of the environmental review process for two proposed frac sand mines in Winona County overwhelmingly call for officials there to follow the law and order an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Land Stewardship Project members, other local citizens, state agencies and scientific experts submitted a total of about 75 comments on…  Read More →

Oct. 9: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities Minnesota Department of Transportation rethinks no-spray ditch program after yanking signs (10/9/20) The Minnesota Department of Transportation is reevaluating its decision to pull “Do Not Spray” signs without warning in southeastern Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune. Farmers, including LSP members, had complained…  Read More →

At a Land Stewardship Project Policy and Organizing Program staff meeting in January 2016, I had a deeply moving experience that will stay with me for a long time. My fellow organizers and I read aloud an early draft of a document entitled, “A Transformational Narrative for LSP Policy & Organizing: A Work in Progress.”…  Read More →

Minnesota Sands Announces Intentions to Target Fillmore & Winona Counties for More Mining The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) made the right decision May 21 by tabling the issue of taking a Houston County mine out of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) ordered on the multi-site Minnesota Sands, LLC, frac sand mining project. Thus, the…  Read More →

This fall, LSP uncovered serious errors in the process of environmental review that was being done on proposed frac sand mines in Minnesota’s Winona County. Eventually, the county acknowledged that the problems we pointed out needed to be corrected, and started the environmental review process over in November. Unfortunately, the county’s second attempt at environmental…  Read More →

Last fall, the Land Stewardship Project’s organizing efforts won a major victory when the Winona County Board in southeastern Minnesota banned any new frac sand operations in the county’s jurisdiction. In recent years, outside interests have been seeking to strip-mine and haul away silica sand from beneath southeastern Minnesota hills, bluffs and farmland to use…  Read More →

There’s a farm near Hixton, Wis., (Jackson County) that is in the process of being destroyed by being turned into a frac sand mine. I would say it’s a least a couple of hundred acres. It’s at the intersection of Highway 95 and Green (but not for long!) Acres Road. Some excavation has begun, there…  Read More →

The process of environmental review for frac sand mine proposals in Winona County has been seriously flawed from the start. But there’s still time for citizens to get involved and push for an in-depth, comprehensive review—otherwise known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)—that would show the full impacts these proposed developments would have on our…  Read More →

The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) voted this week to remove the Erickson silica sand mine in Houston County from the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) required on the multi-site Minnesota Sands, LLC, frac sand mining project. At the same meeting, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Commissioner made it clear that the mine requires a…  Read More →