On the serious side, a District Judge at Minot ordered the draining of a wetland with a USFWS easement. The drainage was to be completed by March 31, 1999. The court order describes how the upstream landowner has lost revenue because of the lake. The order involves the breaking of a natural barrier to allow the movement of artificial water. The lake in question is about fifteen feet deep in the center and covers in excess of forty acres. My son happens to be the downstream landowner and owns about half of the lake which has the USFWS easement.

Get your scrapers and backhoes out of the trees. Better yet, perhaps you could borrow this judge. I know this case will be interesting and probably expensive.

On the legislative side I testified before the Legislature on providing funds for ND’s Agriculture In The Classroom (AITC) program. This is a little known program that has operated through the ND Dept. of Agriculture in cooperation with the Dept. of Public Instruction since 1985. While the Legislature has given the program funding authority, it has never authorized the use of tax dollars.

LeAnn Harner set the stage by explaining a brief history of AITC and plans for the future. Then I discussed the Legislature’s plan to pull funds from the profits of the state mill, reminding them the fund came from production agriculture. Then I told about the lack of understanding about agriculture on the part of many people.

I explained how “the system” (federal agencies) have made funds available for the education programs called Project Wet, Project Wild and Project Learning Tree. I then stated if we can draw from funds created by production agriculture, we should be able to invest a small portion into the future of agriculture by educating our children about a farm. After all we’ve found a way to teach them about a duck.

We tried, but the Legislature didn’t understand the need or find the money. They defeated the bill, but did increase the Department’s spending authority. That means the state AITC Council will try to gather donations to carry out their plans.

Until next time, farm safely.