The Farmers Get It: "Extraordinary Sites" List Is Bad, Bad News

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

“This is an insult to landowners,” Bowman said. “The biggest part of the area they are looking at is in my district. I can say this: If they ram this down our throats, we’ll shut down everything in western North Dakota. I’ll get a group of landowners together and shut down hunting on a huge area of private land. You can call me a radical, but that might be the last alternative we have.”

Opponents of the potential policy argue that it would be an overreach of government control over private property similar to an eminent domain power play. Backers of the proposal say it’s a needed measure to protect certain North Dakota landmarks and wild places from an onslaught of development of lands above the Bakken oil shale in the western part of the state.

I think the farmers, hunters, and everyone else realize that once the extraordinary sites is approved, the oil and gas industry won't be the only thing banned from the sites -- everything will be subject to approval, even farming, hunting, windmills. Oh, windmills? -- no, they will be fast-tracked.

The List Of Extraordinary Sites Where Drilling Might Not Be Allowed

Bakken.com is reporting:

The sites proposed by Stenehjem are:

• Black Butte in Slope County
• Bullion Butte in Billings County 
• Camel’s Hump Butte in Golden Valley County
• Columnar Junipers (Limber Pines) and Burning Coal Vein, formerly known as the Dakota National Forest, in northwest Slope County
• Confluence of Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers
• Elkhorn Ranch
• Killdeer Mountain Battlefield State Historic Site, Wildlife Management Area
• Lake Sakakawea
• Little Missouri River
• Little Missouri River National Grasslands – areas designated by the U.S. Forest Service as not administratively available for future leasing after July 31, 2002
• Little Missouri State Park
• Pretty Butte in Slope County
• Sentinel Butte in Golden Valley County
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park
• Tracy Mountain in Billings County
• West Twin Butte in Golden Valley County
• White Butte in Slope County
• Wildlife Management Areas

A reader was kind enough to send that story, as well as an interactive link to "Wildlife Management Areas."

One of two things will happen:

• the legislature will push back on this and permits will be considered on a case-by-case basis
• the issue will be settled in court

Some of the "designated" areas seem a bit unclear, like the "entire" Little Missouri River drainage. Wow.  And Lake Sakakawea -- off-shore? The same with the "Confluence." The whole drainage area? Wow.

A very slippery slope at the top of which the attorney general is putting on his skis.

Additional Stories

February 22, 2014: managing editor, The Dickinson Press; property rights above all else

February 21, 2014: farmers/ranchers vehemently against "extraordinary list"

February 15, 2014: state senator representing Dickinson area comes out against "the extraordinary list."