I want to welcome the new LAND members to our newsletter, which is one of the main means of communication between our board and the membership. I think I can speak for the whole board in saying we hope to serve you well in preserving the revenue generating capacity of your property.

LAND continues to address the push by certain environmental/conservation groups to obtain control of our property through conservation easements. These groups are courting friendship with major ag communication vendors. The Nature Conservancy was featured on Successful Farming Radio Network, The American Farmland Trust on DTN and Land Trust Alliance in the Farm and Ranch Guide. These are the ones I am familiar with and have responded to. The Farm and Ranch Guide graciously printed my response. Successful Farming and DTN did not.

LAND is opposed to the efforts of these conservation groups. Each uses the same rhetoric: the right to sell a perpetual easement is a property right. I am not aware of a court ruling defining the legality of perpetual easements but encumbrances to title in wills and legacies are usually limited to the beneficiary plus 21 years.

LAND believes a perpetual easement grants the control of property to the easement holder without the responsibilities of ownership such as paying land taxes, weed control or maintenance of the property. The separation of control from responsibility is wrong and needs to be addressed legislatively.

LAND is also watching the evolvement of the grassland management plan in western North Dakota by the US Forest Service. The last I've heard is that McKenzie, Billings and Slope counties will have to pay $19,000 to get copies of data about the plan. Doesn't it make you angry when local governments have to pay exorbitant fees to get information about what the Federal Government is doing within their boundaries?