Fargo Forum: Byron Dorgan Putting Politics Ahead Of Land Preservation

The Fargo Forum, in typically sneering editorial thumbing its nose at those ignorant rubes in western North Dakota who don’t know what’s good for them, follows the Grand Forks Herald’s lead yesterday in criticizing Dorgan for having a “blind spot” in opposing a federal land designation in the Badlands.
The Forum argues that Dorgan is just opposing the designation because of politics.

Sen. Byron Dorgan’s latest tussle with the U.S. Forest Service smells of politics. The North Dakota Democrat opposes a proposal to add 12,000 acres of the state’s scenic Badlands to the National Register of Historic Places. The senator seems to be engaged in a pre-emptive measure to keep the proposal from becoming a campaign issue. Dorgan is up for re-election next year and speculation is rampant that popular Republican Gov. John Hoeven will take up the challenge. Hoeven opposes the designation, as do grazing associations and local governments in the area. …
Dorgan and apparently the rest of the state’s congressional delegation have a conservation and historic blind spot when it comes to the Badlands. For example, they’ve essentially blocked a modest plan to designate 10 small tracts as wilderness. Now Dorgan is going after the Forest Service (not exactly a courageous act in the West) over historic designation of a relatively small area that is, by any honest assessment, worthy of such designation. The senator is wrong. He seems to be putting his political fortunes ahead of preserving and protecting the heritage and history of the Badlands.

Now I don’t at all agree with the Forum’s position on this designation, but when they say that Dorgan is playing politics with this issue they’re right. But they’re missing one important facet: Dorgan’s backing of the extremely controversial and unpopular Northern Plains Heritage Area land designation (my past posts on that subject here).
Dorgan, with the help of state Senator Tracy Potter, backed that designation which was put in place without notifying any of the land owners involved and without giving them any option to opt out of it. Dorgan (and Potter) have reaped the political whirlwind for that move, with hundreds of angry North Dakotans showing to protest the designation, and now Dorgan is trying to back peddle with this Badlands designation without angering more of his constituents (which whom the ivory tower liberals at the Forum Communications newspapers are entirely out of step).