A frac sand mine. The forested area on the slope is the original habitat.
From Winona (MN) Daily News, by way of the Earth First! Newswire:
Thirty-five people were arrested for trespassing during a large protest against frac sand Monday morning staged at two separate locations in Winona.
The Winona Police Department arrested 19 people at the city’s commercial dock, after they were asked multiple times to leave the private property. Officers than responded to a frac sand processing plant on Winona’s west end, where they arrested another 16 people for trespassing there.
Protesters said their goal was to halt business operations at each site.
“I think people see that the issue of silica sand is something affecting the entire region,” said protester Molly Greening. “They’ve come to stand in solidarity with this issue.”
Frac sand, officially known as fine-grained silica sand, is a special type of sand needed to help keep fracking mines from closing back up during drilling. It is strip-mined on a massive scale approximating mountaintop removal. Frac sands are also mined in Iowa, where new mines are being fiercely opposed by local residents.
