Being from northeastern ND where we have dealt with perpetual USFWS easements since the early 60's, I cannot see why anyone in their right mind would consider, for any amount of compensation, signing over the sovereignty of their property to the Federal government.

A USFWS employee in the Devils Lake district told a neighbor the USFWS is handling 150 violations to easements in this area. Two LAND board members shared that two separate rural water systems were refused right of crossing USFWS property and had to be trenched around the property at the users' expense. Perpetual easements have been perpetual headaches for most private landowners involved.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting with an irrigator from Wyoming. He said the Nature Conservancy and BLM are purchasing land in Wyoming similar to DU and USFWS in North Dakota.

It is obvious the Federal government and the agencies allied with it have an agenda of power and control. Wayne Hage's book "Storm Over Rangelands" gives an historical account of Federal attempts to control the west. He states on page 45, "The Federal lands continue to serve as an instrument of expanding northern core power" and later, "Federal ownership of vast areas of western land is an anomaly in the American System of private enterprise and decentralized government authority."

The US constitution addresses this issue in the 10th amendment: "The powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectfully, or to the people."