North Dakota Resource Management Issues

January 22, 2002

North Dakota in is the North Country Trail news more than ever this year since the prairie state will host the Annual Conference in August. Management issues for this state differ from the eastern forest states as well as the landscape. Two such issues are grasslands management, and the Missouri River. The NCT passes through the Sheyenne National Grassland, and terminates just past the Garrison Dam, which regulates the Missouri River flow.

Grasslands

Environmental groups charge that a U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plan to manage the nation's grasslands would reduce the amount of land recommended for wilderness and open more wildlife habitat to oil and gas development. The plan also does not recognize any wild and scenic rivers in the grasslands. They charge that cattle are allowed to graze on almost all the national grasslands, and many prairie dog towns have been destroyed to prevent injuries to cattle. Oil and natural gas development continues unchecked.

According to the Predator Conservation Alliance, the new USFS plan for how these national grasslands will be managed is a "major step backwards." The ten national grasslands and forests in the northern Great Plains include some of the most outstanding examples of prairie left in public ownership. The Alliance recommends that the agency concentrate on maintaining healthy populations of all native species on all national grasslands. Imperiled species include the swift fox, mountain plover and ferruginous hawk. Other native species which need to be restored are the black-footed ferret and bison.

Missouri River

The National Academy of Sciences has concluded after two years of study that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can circumvent "policy gridlock" and move directly to restore America's longest and most historically significant river in a manner that will provide economic benefits to the seven states in the Missouri River basin. They also called for "decisive and immediate management actions" to restore more natural seasonal flows and rescue native fish and wildlife, claiming that the Corps of Engineers can change its dam operations "within its current authority."

River advocates, who have labored for years to secure new guidance for the Army Corps' dam operations, were thrilled at the boldness of the Academy's suggestion. American Rivers and its partners in the Save the Missouri Coalition hailed the National Academy of Sciences. The scientists noted that current dam operations had resulted in a loss of nearly "one million recreation-based days of hunting, fishing, sightseeing, and boating annually" and asserted that reformed dam operations may be "justifiable solely on the grounds that it represents an economic improvement."