Selected Articles from the LAND Newsletter
FOOLISH MONEY
By Dennis Miller, Past President and Director of LAND
Dear Editor:
I recently attended two meetings concerning water damage in Northeast North Dakota. I apologize if our problems seem strange to two-thirds of the state but we have suffered from excess water for twelve years now. The first meeting concerned funding for maintenance of waterways and protection of a large part of my area from overland flooding. The local water board will propose an assessment to be paid by affected landowners. The gist of the meeting was improving the profitability of the farmers affected. Most farmers in attendance anxiously listened to how much protection would be allowed, what was acceptable to the many players and to what degree each landowner's losses would be mitigated.
Next came the county commission meeting. Here the waffle project was discussed, which if implemented, would store water to mitigate flooding. No questions were asked about the impact of the project on those upstream and money was readily available to experiment. For those unfamiliar with the waffle project, it would store water on land that drains naturally in order to protect land that naturally floods. A good place to spend our Federal money, don't you think?
Each of our ancestors sacrificed to pay taxes to build the infrastructure that we enjoy today. They built bridges big enough to handle the streams that their roads crossed. Now, these bridges are being replaced by culverts too small to handle the inflows and landowners are expected to involuntarily store water to protect those that have property too close to the water. We landowners are told the cost is too high to put in culverts that would sufficiently protect our property. Also, certain organizations resist local water management efforts, most notably the United States Fish and Wildlife "Service?"
Let us look at what the public has money for. NDSU studied the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in four counties in North Dakota and estimated that CRP causes an annual net loss of $16 million in economic activity in each of the counties studied (This was before the increase in grain prices. At current prices, the figures would be much higher). The new Farm Bill funds the CRP plus Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program at $360 million, Farmland Protection Program at $597 million, and the Grasslands Reserve Program at $254 million, to name a few. Each of these have little to do with enhancing farmer profitability and everything to do with subsidizing wildlife, which puts a parallel drag on the farm economy.
What society will prosper that spends its money on foolishness?
Editor’s Note: LAND Board members have committed to writing more letters to the editor this year. Bob Lebacken’s piece last month has resulted in publicity in ND and beyond.
