The small signs are popping up around Ely: “We support mining” and “Mining supports us.” They are simple declarative sentences with complex subtexts.

Because the proposed sulfide mining in a watershed like ours has implications that could seriously threaten the lakes, rivers, fish, wildlife and entire ecosystems, one wishes the signs were bigger, with room for an bit of context.

We support mining when it is environmentally safe. Or, on the other hand, we support mining and don’t give a darn about your lake. Or, we support mining because it will bring us mining jobs, and that’s more important than your tourism job. Or, we support mining when the company pays for all ecological restoration in perpetuity.

Some of the most difficult social conflicts are those that pit two goods against one another. Jobs are good. A healthy environment is good. And it is naïve to ignore the reality that sometimes one cancels out the other.

Addressing complexities from the environmental perspective are groups that run the spectrum from the most activist to those without a political agenda.

Mining Truth is a coalition of three advocacy environmental organizations encouraging dialogue on the controversial mining initiatives proposed for large sites near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Lake Superior. Conservation Minnesota, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy take the position that health and environmental risks from toxic contamination of water and air run high with hardrock sulfide mining, and that it has never been done safely.

Their website at miningtruth.org addresses key questions on the mining issue with concern, clarity and a plea for Minnesotans to learn the facts in order to influence political leaders. Facts like, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified hardrock mining as the nation’s top toxic producing industry. In 2010, the metal mining industry was responsible for 41 percent of all toxins released into the environment. ” It concludes, “Sulfide mining pollution would forever change Minnesota, including the Boundary Waters, Lake Superior and our economy.”

Another group, with no dog in the political fight, is also doing important work. The Ely Field Naturalists put a microscope on the local environment, and sometimes bring binoculars, camera and a field guide.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The earth is more to be admired than to be used,” and the EFN group of about 210, founded by Bill Tefft, is indeed full of admiration, curiosity and interest for the natural world in the Ely area.

Just join the Google group (email Tefft at efnbill@gmail.com) to get a close look. One member writes, “We’ve had turtles laying their eggs in the sand near the end of our driveway for many years, sometimes the shells have not even hardened when the foxes were feasting...while the turtle were still walking away.  Foxes were willing to come out in the open even with us watching.”

Another reports on loon activity: “On my end of the lake here at Birch, last year had four successful nests resulting in seven chicks!  This year the pair that nests the closest to us lost their nest either to high water or predation, one other nest has two month-old chicks (which was very early for a hatch) and the other two are still on their nests.”

In recent weeks short reports came in on sightings of a barking fox, goslings, a grouse attack, orchids and a mockingbird, just to name a few.

This group acts as a virtual ecology center with no building, no officers, political positions or formal structure other than a meeting the second Thursday of the month in room 122 at Vermilion Community College. Meanwhile members sponsor a weekly Nature Night program for the public on Wednesdays during summer. The group conducted a Master Naturalist course this spring and offers Saturday morning bird hikes at Bear Head Lake State Park. Its upcoming project is a four-night seminar on the geology of the area from July 23 to Aug. 2. Even here, politics is not at issue, and contributing experts will come from Twin Metals, one of the mining companies involved in the ongoing controversy.

Members work on research projects, study bear foods, and do frog and toad studies, bird banding and searches for rare plants. They volunteer for the Great Back Yard Bird Count and other bird studies during the year.

The group takes a firm stand against one thing – invasive species. Members have gathered in the fields and woods to uproot wild parsnip, garlic mustard and buckthorn.

The EFN approach to the environment is significant and powerful, even though the group eschews politics. A quote from Senegalese poet and naturalist Baba Dioum says it best: “In the end, we will protect only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”

Understanding our environment might even result in a variety of other signs popping around town. I’d suggest, “We support lakes. We support arsenic-free water. We support frogs. We support fishing. We support mercury-free air.” Because after all, “The environment supports us.”