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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Update on News From Around the Bakken (Not All Bakken Stories)

The City of Williston and the State of North Dakota are fighting over mineral rights under the river and the lake in the Williston area. Can't we all just get along?

Update on North Dakota cattle flying to Kazakhstan. It turns out the cows will get frequent flyer miles which can be transferred to their bovine friends left behind. Black-out dates will apply, and the total number of miles will only get them from Bismarck to Minot. The cattle filled out their menu selections before takeoff; most ordered vegetarian, although several had chicken ("Eat More Chicken") and a few went kosher, thinking kosher, Kashagan, and Kazakhstan had a nice ring to it.  [Original posting here.]

[Update, February 3, 2011: Fortune magazine on the Kows to Kazakhstan story.]
[Update, November 13, 2010: the cows got to Kazakhstan in fine shape.]

The Minot Daily News has a nice update on the water level of the river.  This is really something for North Dakota. It seems so many of the years I was growing up in Williston, the water level was getting lower and lower as I got older and older.

7 comments:

  1. Who knew that UPS treated its freight so well?

    The article on cows jumping over the pond is quite good, but the final sentence, posted below, is deceptive.

    “Kazakhstan already is the fourth-biggest importer of North Dakota products, mostly farm machinery. The state (referring to ND) exported $40.3 million in goods last year, up from $25 million in 2005.”

    What’s missing are events outside of those two data points.

    Areas of the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Russia, share geographical/climate/agricultural similarities with ND. They’ve formed an alliance called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). ND exports to CIS, mostly farm equipment, peaked at $224 million in 2008. The worldwide financial crisis, together with steep Russian tariffs imposed in 2009, and a severe drought in CIS countries in 2010 have sent exports to CIS into the tank.

    North Dakota is still hard at work with bipartisan trade efforts. This summer we hosted visitors at a trade show that included our Republican governor, the US Secretary of Agriculture, and our lone US Congressman(D.

    Hess342

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  2. Personal ties are the key to all of this, and when economy turns around, ND will still have those ties with the CIS folks.

    Good luck to all.

    When you talk about similar climate between the two areas (CIS and ND), it reminds me of the wonderful Syrian influence among the farmers around Williston. It's my understanding, coming up through El Paso, Texas, the Syrian connection has a lot to do with the grain farming in Syria. The "Bakken Blog" for me has opened doors I never would have seen.

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  3. You hit a North Dakota topic gold mine this morning.

    The legal wrangle over mineral rights under navigable waters (primarily the Missouri) is a necessary legal contest to establish the law in an ambiguous area. It’s a dispute that will last for a while, but may not be terribly emotional. The unfortunate side of this easy mineral owner wealth is that most ownership has followed a dissemination across the generations of original homesteading families, and legal ambiguities and greed can divide families.

    Tree ring studies in North Dakota tell us that while patterns of wet and dry aren’t predictable as to duration, there is a wet dry pattern with phases up to 30 years. We’re currently in a wet pattern. This, together with unusually high agricultural prices, is a big contributor to the ND boom. Devils Lake, North Dakota’s largest natural lake is a wide area basin with inlets but no outlets, a consequence of glacial activity. It rises and falls with the precipitation patterns and complex aquifer feeding, and is currently in a rising phase that’s wiping out small towns, lake cabins, and farm land. A man made outlet is contemplated, and, as is common, states look to the federal government for funding. North Dakota’s oil wealth may allow a local solution.

    Hess342

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  4. If any state can solve a major problem, it would be North Dakota. It seems their governors, state legislators have done well for the state over the years.

    The Devils Lake story will be interesting to follow. It must be an interesting story how it got its name. Obviously, it had to have had a very good reason to be named the "devil's" lake. Talk about living up to its name.

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  5. Native Americans see this as a translation error. They call it Spirit Lake. Negative spin applied to people and ideas that differ from mine is all too common.

    Hess342

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  6. That has to be exactly right! Wow. Absolutely amazing, isn't it? Thank you.

    There is a Spirit Lake, Iowa, and I assume other Spirit Lakes around the country. How strange that this particular one got the name it did.

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  7. I've read that someone set out in search of cannibals only to find that with each tribe encountered they were told "We don't do that, but the tribe over the hill certainly does."

    Hess342

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