Uh Oh: 220 People Show Up To Protest Senator Byron Dorgan’s 4.7 Million Acre Land Grab

Earlier today I put out a call for people to attend the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation’s first public hearing about the 4.7 million acre federal land designation grab, and boy did you all respond in force.
On the radio show tonight I interviewed on attendee, and according to other reports, there were between 200 – 300 people (one specific estimate at 220 which I find entirely credible) packed in the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Library and nobody who spoke up at the event was in favor of this land designation. At around 8:30pm they began shooing people out of the building because the library had to close, and even then there were people lined up to talk.
I’ll hopefully have some audio of the event up later, but for now let me summarize some things.
First, the people representing the land grab proponents were a Dorgan staffer, state Senator Tracy Potter and former Ag Commissioner and current attorney and President of the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation Sarah Vogel. Other NPHF board members were in attendance put apparently weren’t up to answer questions.
The tone of the audience was one of utter distrust. The crowd was asked to raise their hands if they’d heard about the NHA land designation before it became law. Nobody raised their hands. The crowd asked state Senator Potter about (illegally) lobbying with taxpayer money. He deflected the question, but one plucky attendee had a print out of the lobbying report and tax records showing that Potter had paid for lobbying with taxpayer dollars. The crowd asked why the first public hearing on this land grab was taking place after it was made law and after $10 million tax dollars had been appropriated for the next 15 years.
The crowd asked why they weren’t given an option to opt out of this. The crowd asked why they should have to show up at every township, county commission and city council meeting and “babysit” the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation to make sure they weren’t asking for land management changes that run contrary to the interests of land owners.
In short, the meeting was long on questions and very short on answers.
Tonight was a proud night for North Dakotans, but it doesn’t stop here. Dorgan and Potter and the rest of the proponents of this land grab are going to keep pushing forward with their plans, and land owners need to be vigilant until this land grab is quashed.
Tonight was a good start, but the battle isn’t over yet.
You can read all of my NHA posts here.