Say Anything Blog

How dare they question a federal land designation - complete with $10 million in funding for an unelected board of political activists to develop a “management plan” - that they were never asked about, never notified about and were ultimately opted into without their permission and with no way, at least originally, to opt out?

What do these property owners think this is?  A free country or something?  Byron Dorgan knows what’s best for you rubes!

LEAFY SPURGE: To central North Dakota landowners who object to designation of a five-county area bordering the Missouri River as a national heritage area. They apparently illogically fear the federal designation will attenuate their property rights. It won’t, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., as strong a champion of rural property rights as anyone in government, has said as much. He sponsored the legislation. The usual cast of characters, including the North Dakota Policy Council and the North Dakota Farm Bureau, has taken after Dorgan and Tracy Potter of the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation for supporting the designation. But if any tract of land in the state qualifies as a national heritage area, it surely is the Missouri River corridor between Bismarck and Washburn. Historical events of national importance occurred there. The designation does nothing to erode property rights, but offers opportunity to access funding to enhance historically important sites. It’s a good deal, and the whiners and complainers have no case.

Whiners and complainers.  That’s rich.

Wes Klein, from the North Dakota Farm Bureau, told me during an interview on my radio show (listen here) that a land owner in Mercer County has already lost a coal lease thanks to interference inspired by the NHA.  Tom DeWeese from the American Policy Center told me in an interview (listen to that one here) that in Tennessee, a place where state Senator Tracy Potter has indicated is a good example of NHA’s living in harmony with property rights, a land owner was forced to go to court against the local NHA board to get his home remodeled.

So, while Byron Dorgan and Tracy Potter and their unquestioning sycophants at the Fargo Forum say there is no threat to property rights (and accuse everyone who says there is of being “winers”), the evidence from things that have actually happened indicates that there is a threat here.

And if there is no threat to property rights, why were property owners opted into this designation without their knowledge?  Why, originally, were they given no choice to opt out?  And why should their land be at all susceptible to the machinations of an unelected board of directors of some foundation that has $10 million of our tax dollars to pursue a management plan for the land that we’re supposed they won’t really be managing?

Once again, the North Dakota media unquestioningly believes everything the politicians tell them.