Dorgan Considering Opt-Out Clause For North Dakota Land Grab?

Here’s an interesting update for those of you following the National Heritage Areas story (click here to get my previous posts). A little birdie, who has apparently talked with someone in the Senator’s office, tells me that Byron Dorgan is considering an amendment to the bill he pushed through in the Omnibus Land Act of 2009 which created the 500,000 acre (of private land) National Heritage Area in North Dakota. The amendment in question? Putting back in the opt-out language for land owners that was stripped from the bill before it was passed.
Could this be true? One would hope so, and given all the disturbing facts brought to light about the way this federal land designation has been put in place by the North Dakota Farm Bureau, the North Dakota Policy Council, Scott Hennen and this blog it wouldn’t at all be surprising to learn that Dorgan, state Senator Tracy Potter and everyone else involved were retreating.
After all, for all their bluster about how this designation doesn’t really affect property rights, without an opt-out clause in the legislation land owners trapped in the designated area have no choice but to attend every single public hearing set up by the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation (the group responsible for managing the NHA) with the federal tax dollars it gets in order to make sure their land isn’t managed in a manner not to their liking.
It’s bad enough that this designation happened without the land owners even being notified. Not letting the land owners opt out of the designation makes this land designation unacceptable, and un-American.
If you’d like to encourage Dorgan to fix this, click here to send him an email.