N.D. senators lead fight against Obama water rule

Two North Dakota senators, Republican John Hoeven and Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, are leading the opposition to the Obama administration's "Waters of the United States" rule, which would "increase the number of streams and wetlands that receive automatic protection under the Clean Water Act," Annie Snider writes for Environment & Energy Daily.

Hoeven is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is trying to stop the rule through the appropriations process, while Heitkamp is gathering support from moderates to back legislation that would force the administration to go back to the beginning to redraft the rule.

"There is not one single federal regulation in the entire country that has caused more concern in the state of North Dakota than this Waters of the United States proposed regulation from the Corps of Engineers and EPA," Heitkamp said at a news conference last month.

The concern about the rule has less to do with the specifics of the rule and more to do with the region's farmers feeling as though both nature and shifting federal programs are boxing them in, Snider writes. Because the state has seen excessive precipitation in the past few years, farmers are finding new spots where water collects on their farms. "Now we've got a situation where water that didn't use to drain anywhere is now overland flooding to the point that water is traveling through eight or nine wetlands—from wetland to wetland," said Chad Weckerly, who farms 16,000 acres in Hurdsfield, N.D. (Read more)

NEA honors rural craftsman with annual Heritage Awards; 2012's best -- snowshoes, baskets, gospel

National Endowment for the ArtsSnowshoes made from ash wood and rawhide by Paul and Darlene Bergren of Minot, North Dakota -- the Begrens' craftsmanship and teaching have been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Daily Yonder reminds that The National Endowment for the Arts has announced its National Heritage Awards for 2012. And that Paul and Darlene Bergren -- dog-sled and snowshoe makers from Minot, North Dakota -- are among them. "The awards honor artists who are preserving traditional crafts, music, and visual arts through teaching and the excellence of their own work. Over the past 30 years, hundreds of rural makers and musicians have been recognized, from woodcarver George Lopez (Cordova, New Mexico) to zydeco accordionist Clifton Chenier (Opelousas, LA) to weaver Teri Rofkar (Sitka, Alaska). Many folk expressions originated as the practical arts of rural life (saddlery, quilting,..making snowshoes)." A list of the 2012 winners and past winners is available here.

Alaska and North Dakota try to lure veterinarians to remote rural outposts with different bait

Rural and remote areas in the U.S. struggle with lack of veterinary care because most vets would rather work in large cities with small animal practices. Two states are trying to deal with this issue in two very different ways.

Alaskan lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow out-of-state veterinarians to practice free of charge in remote regions of the state where there aren't any vets, Jill Burke of the Alaska Dispatch reports (photo by Burke). A previous bill would have allowed in-state vets to travel to rural places to deliver care, but in-state vets were opposed. Burke reports vets from outside the state are "convinced that Alaska's villages desperately need vet care and that someone should step up and deliver it." But some officials and vets inside the state say volunteer vets could provide substandard care without state oversight.

In North Dakota, a tuition loan repayment program is luring large-animal vets to rural areas who have previously stayed in cities to work at small animal clinics, which are more profitable and popular, Cliff Naylor of KFYR-TV in Bismarck, N.D., reports. The program reimburses students up to $80,000 of tuition costs if they work three years in a rural clinic. Veterinary school graduate Marie Henderson said she had $140,000 in student loan debt when she graduated and headed straight to North Dakota to take advantage of the program. It's allowing her to continue working with large animals, something she said most graduates don't do because of the debt they incur. (Read more)

N.D. wind farm is largest in U.S. owned by a co-op

A North Dakota rural electric cooperative completed the largest cooperative-owned wind farm in the country just before the new year. Basin Electric Power Cooperative's 77-turbine wind farm is located near Minot and Max and is the first step toward achieving the company's goal of meeting 20 percent of its current member load with renewable energy by 2010, The Bismarck Tribune reports.

Basin Electric's membership passed a resolution in 2005 for 10 percent of the company's electricity to come from renewables, but the company has chosen to double that requirement. The Minot-Max wind farm combined with the company's other renewable projects should generate 600 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 175,000 homes, by the end of the year. Verendrye Electric Cooperative of Velva, N.D., is also a working partner in the Minot-Max project. (Read more)

Keeping tabs on sex offenders in rural areas may be a more common police task than you think

Here's a story that could be done in many rural communities, maybe more than you might realize. Read on.

Detective Amanda McNamee of the Dickinson, N.D., Police Department is assigned to keep tabs on the small city's 20 registered sex offenders. "In addition to being fingerprinted, photographed and swabbed for a DNA sample, (sex offenders) must register with local law enforcement officials within three days of moving into a community," Dan Barry writes in the The New York Times.

"This includes providing home address, employer’s address, e-mail address and any information regarding motor vehicles, schools and 'social networking.' Every now and then the police department sends a news release to the local newspaper to report that a high-risk offender has moved to town. Its boilerplate text explains that notification is being made 'in the belief that an informed public is a safer public,' but that the information 'is not to be used to threaten, harass, assault, or intimidate the registered offenders.' In the end, one person monitors the registered sex offenders of Dickinson: Detective McNamee, 27, the wife of a night-shift supervisor at the Baker Boy plant and the mother of two children, one 19 months old, the other 4 months old."

McNamee became one of only two women on a force of approximately 25 when she joined in 2003. After several years of riding patrol, she transferred to the investigations unit in 2006 and recognized "an opportunity to improve the way the department kept track of the city’s registered sex offenders. Now she has her 'high-risk guys,' her 'moderate-risk guys' and her 'low-risk guys,' a few of whom reside upstairs from her office, in the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center. She makes a point of meeting each one of these inmates to say, 'When you’re out, I’ll come see you.'" Eleven low-risk offenders are checked on by Detective McNamee every few months, but "she gives much closer scrutiny to her five moderate-risk offenders and her four high-risk offenders... She keeps track of them through telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings that are nothing if not guarded."

Officers of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault "believe a law passed in recent years restricting where registered sex offenders may live have caused many to move to rural areas," writes James Nash in The Courier of Montgomery County. "The new law, barring offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or day care centers, was part of U.S. House Bill 8, also known as Jessica’s Law, which went into effect on Sept. 1 of last year. It also eliminated the statute of limitations in cases of child sexual assault and doubles the statute of limitations for other sexually violent offenses, therefore increasing the number of offenders required to register.

The bill was named for Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl whose kidnapping, rape and murder in 2005 by a registered sex offender gained national attention. Additionally, House Bill 8 included a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years to life for aggravated sexual assault of someone under 14 years old, and the option of the death penalty or life without parole for a second aggravated sexual assault against someone under 14. It also requires sexually violent predators who are civilly committed — instead of criminally — to wear a global position system device for the rest of their lives. Texas was the thirty-second state to adopt Jessica's Law."

Most states have passed laws that restrict where sex offenders can live, which may result in many relocating to rural areas. Is this a problem in your community, and if so, is there a Detective McNamee in your community?

National parks may hunt elk to trim growing herds

In three national parks in Colorado and the Dakotas, the elk population is straining the food supply for other foragers and browsers, so officials are considering shooting elk to restore balance, reports Peter Slevin of The Washington Post. Simply put, the elk (in an Associated Press photo by Sara Gettys) are out-eating other animals such as bison, feral horses and deer.

National Park Service "Spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said proposals to curb the elk population at Rocky Mountain have inspired 'strong feelings across the board,'" Slevin writes. "Recommendations ranged from shooting and fencing to contraception and the introduction of wolves, one of elk's few natural predators."

Wildlife conservation groups favor introducing wolves, as was done to lower the elk population in Yellowstone National Park during the 1990s. Park officials, however, "settled on 'lethal reduction,' as shooting is called, as the preferred way to control the herd," Slevin writes. "Sharpshooters with night-vision goggles and silencers would target elk after dark. A formal decision is expected to be released soon, Patterson said, with the program likely to begin next winter and continue for two decades." (Read more)

First bank privately owned by American Indians on a reservation opens in North Dakota

The Turtle Mountain State Bank opened this week in Belcourt, N.D., becoming the first bank on a U.S. reservation to be privately owned by American Indians, reports James MacPherson of The Associated Press. (Encarta map)

While banks on other reservations usually are owned by tribes or non-Indian companies, the new bank is owned by a group of investors led by tribal member James Laducer. "A bank is the backbone to economic growth in any community," Laducer told MacPherson. "But people wanting to do banking had to go at least 10 to 20 miles off the reservation to get to a bank."

Belcourt is the largest town on the reservation, which has 20 businesses and a community college. (Read more)

Geographic article on North Dakota stirs uproar

The January issue of National Geographic magazine included a Charles Bowden feature on North Dakota called "The Emptied Prairie." North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven did not like it one bit, and he was not the only North Dakotan taking issue with the story. Hoeven wrote a letter to the magazine's editor-in-chief, Chris Johns, calling the feature "way off the mark," reports The Bismarck Tribune.

The feature paints a bleak picture of life on the plains (along with photos such as the one above by Eugene Richards). "That’s the rub in rural North Dakota, a sense of things ebbing, of churches being abandoned, schools shutting down, towns becoming ruins," Bowden writes. "And all this decline exists amid a seeming statistical prosperity: Oil is booming, wheat prices are at record highs, and, as the average farm size grows, the land is studded with paper millionaires living in the lonely sweep of the plains, with surrounding community gone to the wind."

Hoeven's letter accentuates the positive in his state, and he points to the success of ethanol and biodiesel facilities as well as rural businesses. "To give the magazine's readers a more accurate picture of our state, I've asked our Commerce Commissioner and Tourism Director to contact your editors and invite you back to cover what you left out -- the fact that North Dakota is a growing 21st century state with a bright future," he writes. (Read more)

Johns defended the article in an interview with The Associated Press this week. "Why did we focus on North Dakota? Because there are some trends there that spoke to us and I love North Dakota," Johns told the AP. Johns said the story was inspired by some of his drives through North Dakota while he was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. (Read more)

The Tribune has spent plenty of ink on the story, including a column by Editor John Irby, a column by Clay Jenkinson and plenty of letters to the editor agreeing and disagreeing with the magazine article. The (Fargo) Forum weighed in with a editorial called, "Geographic look at N.D. is old news." "Beautiful photographs and excellent descriptive writing make for a compelling, if woefully incomplete, image of rural North Dakota in 2008," the editorial board writes. (Read more)

N.D. farmers lose lawsuit to raise hemp, but DEA set to allow research in state 8 years after request

Two North Dakota farmers who sued to end the federal policy that regards hemp as marijuana lost in court yesterday, but in the meantime, the Drug Enforcement Administration ook a step toward allowing North Dakota State University to conduct research on industrial hemp.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland "wrote that the problem facing state-licensed hemp farmers David Monson and Wayne Hauge needs to be addressed by Congress if they hope to ever grow the versatile crop which is used in everything from food and soap to clothing and auto parts," reports USAgNet. The farmers may appeal. One point of contention could be that Hovland "ruled that hemp and marijuana are the same, as DEA has contended for years. However, scientific evidence clearly shows that not only is industrial hemp genetically distinct from the drug marijuana, there are also absolutely no psychoactive effects from ingesting it," USAgNet reports.

Two weeks after the hearing in the case, DEA has sent a Memorandum of Agreement to North Dakota State "which, if signed by the school, would clear the way for industrial hemp research there," USAgNet reports. "NDSU filed an amicus brief in support of the farmers' lawsuit which highlighted the university's eight-year struggle to secure a license from the DEA to grow industrial hemp for research as mandated by state law." (Read more) "NDSU has been required by state lawmakers to study industrial hemp as an alternative crop but has been unable to get DEA permission," reports Blake Nicholson of The Associated Press. DEA's conditions are related mainly to security concerns. (Read more)

Illegally dumped deer carcasses make hunting season unpleasant for some

Some rural residents in Michigan dread the beginning of deer hunting season, because each year it brings the nuisance of illegally dumped deer carcasses. In Bennington Township, Mich., Rick and Dawn Lucas had 17 deer carcasses dropped within 100 yards of their home, reports The Argus-Press in Owosso. The problem is not a new one, but it might be getting worse due to under staffing at the Department of Natural Resources, reports Scott Atkinson. In rural areas such as around the Lucases, a lack of witnesses and patrols means the problem might not be going away soon. (Read more)

The problem is prevalent in other states, reports the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald. Outdoors editor Brad Dokken interviewed hunters and officials who said it is all too common. "'It,' in this case, is the practice of dumping deer carcasses - the bones and crud that's left over after the meat has been removed - in waterways, roadside ditches or other highly visible place," Dokken writes. "Besides being illegal, dumping carcasses is unsightly and gives all deer hunters a bad name." He also cites the latest weekly report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources which included plenty of complaints about the illegal dumping. " You know who you are," Dokken tells would-be dumpers, "and it's time to clean up your act." (Read more)

North Dakota journalism students help rural newspaper and town devastated by tornado

On Aug. 26, a tornado swept through Northwood, N.D., killing one person, injuring 18 others and destroying 90 percent of the single-family homes in the rural community of less than 1,000 people. The local weekly newspaper, The Gleaner, circulation all of 700, was in trouble after the disaster, but it got some help from journalism students from the University of North Dakota, which is about 40 miles away.

The students decided to "adopt" the newspaper, writes their UND professor Dr. Jacquelyn Lowman, and so they have been contributing articles to each issue of The Gleaner throughout this semester. The articles and photos (such as the one above by by student Jackie DeMolee) tell the stories of how residents survived the tornado, and how they are trying to deal with the destruction. The effort is a great example of community journalism, and it is a reminder of the importance of hometown newspapers to their communities. (Read more)

North Dakota farmers, looking for more crop rotation to fight wheat fungus, sue to raise hemp

David Monson, looking at his canola field in photo by Dan Koeck, is "at the leading edge of a national movement to legalize growing hemp, a plant that shares a species name, a genus type and, in many circles, a reputation, with marijuana," Monica Davey reports for The New York Times from Osnabrock, N.D.

Monson "listens to Rush Limbaugh in his tractor . . . is the high school principal in nearby Edinburg, population 252 . . . [and] is a Republican representative in Bismarck, the state capital, where his party dominates both houses of the legislature and the governor is a Republican," Davey writes, with just a hint of wonder. The legislature "has passed a bill allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp and created an official licensing process to fingerprint such farmers and a global positioning system to track their fields," she reports.

"This year, Mr. Monson and another North Dakota farmer, with the support of the state’s agriculture commissioner, applied to the Drug Enforcement Administration for permission to plant fields of hemp immediately." But the DEA has not acted, and "hemp is considered the same as marijuana," Steve Robertson, a DEA agent at the agency's Washington headquarters, told the Times. Monson and another farmer have filed suit against the drug agency. Robertson told the Davey that the DEA was still reviewing their applications, but "he could not say much beyond that because of the litigation," she writes.

Hemp contains tetrahydrocannabinol, the substance that produces a marijuana high, but its advocates "note that it contains mere traces of THC, and that hemp (grown in other countries) is already found here in clothes, lotions, snack bars, car door panels, insulation and more," Davey writes. "Maine, Montana, West Virginia and other states have passed bills allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp, Alexis Baden-Mayer of Vote Hemp, a group that lobbies for legalization of it as a regulated crop and is helping with the lawsuit, told Davey.

In North Dakota, the hemp movement took off when wheat farmers like Monson saw their fields attacked by a fungus and needed to practice more crop rotation. "Its tall stalks survive similarly cool and wet conditions in Canada, just 25 miles north of here, where it is legal, Davey reports. Monson told her, "This is not any subversive thing like trying to legalize marijuana or whatever. This is just practical agriculture. We’re desperate for something that can make us some money." (Read more)