If you travel to scenic Hay Creek, Minnesota, just southwest of Red Wing, you'll see the work of frac sand activist Amy Nelson along state Highway 58. Her signs against frac sand mining dot the road. As a principal strategist, communicator and researcher at Save the Bluffs, a non-profit group that opposes the expansion of industrial frac sand mining and processing, she's jumped to the front lines of a battle that is playing out at the Legislature and in county courthouses, township halls and city halls throughout southeastern Minnesota.

See Amy's story at startribune.com .