Mike McEnroe, North Dakota office of USFWS, wrote last week and challenged the accuracy of my message in the August newsletter. To refresh your memory, I reported on the wetland meeting in Grand Forks held in July. Mr. McEnroe felt I placed a negative spin on the day. He is entitled to his opinion as I am to mine. I said I felt a majority of the presenters were adversarial to agriculture. I believe anyone who tells me I cannot manipulate property I own to make it better to produce crops is my adversary.

Mr. McEnroe did, as he admits, respond to a participant’s question by saying, "There are no stupid questions, only stupid people who ask them." Mr. McEnroe stated he said this as a joke to a friend he has known for many years. Does Mr. McEnroe file federal lawsuits against all his friends? (The person he commented to was one of the people sued in US v. Towner County Water Board.)

Mr. McEnroe felt my comments about Ron Stromstad (who called ND farmers stupid to my face) were also misquoted. Let me share the whole conversation. Mr. Stromstad, who is regional DU director from Sacramento, told me point blank: "You ND farmers are so stupid. You should do like the California rice growers do and hire DU to do your PR work before the legislature. The California farmers are so far ahead of the North Dakota farmers. North Dakota farmers are so stupid."

I close with a question to Mr. McEnroe and others. What honorable person would work for an agency that: 1. Throws the full force of the US government against private land owners and forces them into bankruptcy proving their innocence, and 2. Pays only a percentage of property taxes due on their property and 3. Says they only have authority to purchase land, not sell it, and 4. Refuses to take financial responsibility for depredation caused by overpopulation of birds they regulate?

These newsletters may be well read. Might as well go for maximum impact.