Say Anything Blog

It seems as though they’ll have to be given that it was one of their own Senators who was victimizing them in the first place.

Those of you who have been following the National Heritage Area controversy here in North Dakota (catch up on all my posts here) know what a threat it is to property owners in the State of North Dakota.  To summarize quickly, state Senator Tracy Potter went to Washington DC and testified in favor of a bill sponsored by Senator Byron Dorgan that would give a foundation he is closely associated with millions of dollars to develop a “management plan” for 4.7 million acres of mostly privately-owned land in the middle of North Dakota (and in the heart of coal country).  Senator Potter claimed that the local governing entities in the area were on board with the plan.  He was lying.  Congress passed the legislation and all of the land owners in this 4.7 million area were opted-in to the land designation without even so much as being notified about it.

Since then there’s been quite a bit of push-back from North Dakotans, including groups like the North Dakota Policy Council and the North Dakota Farm Bureau, and rumor is that Dorgan is getting ready to back track on this legislation and make it so that property owners in the state have to opt-in to the land designation instead of simply getting swept up in it and having to opt out.

Even that is cold comfort given that this legislation passed illegally based on a lie to Congress by state Senator Tracy Potter.

In a more recent development, I have received word from Senator Tom Coburn’s (R - OK) office indicating that they want to do Dorgan’s backtracking one better.  Whereas Dorgan’s proposed amendment to this legislation would only change things concerning the Northern Plains Heritage Area here in North Dakota, Coburn’s amendment would require that all National Heritage Areas around the nation get permission from land owners before their land is included in the designation.

Which you would think, in a free country like this which supposedly respects property rights, is what they should have been doing all along.

Here’s a PDF of Coburn’s amendment, and here’s a document drawn up by Coburn’s office explaining why the amendment is necessary (including details of abuse of ND property owners at the hands of state Senator Tracy Potter and Senator Dorgan).

I have to applaud Senator Coburn for taking on this issue, and I’d point out that it’s a little pathetic that North Dakota property owners have to be protected from their own Senator by another Senator from Oklahoma, but it’s also worth remembering that land designations are just part of the problem.

If you choose not to opt your land in to the NHA designation but the county or city or township you live in does any regulatory or zoning decisions made by that local governing entity at the behest of the NHA managers will still effect you.  And they’ll have millions of your tax dollars to lobby those local entities to make those decisions.

This is a step in the right direction, and kudos to Senator Coburn for joining the fray, but this fight isn’t over yet.