Clarification of Grand Forks Herald Editorial

Fargo Forum Gives Leafy Spurge to Heritage Opponents

Clarification of Grand Forks Herald Editorial

To the editor,

Thanks to Tom Dennis for spreading the phrase “nut graf” past the newsroom into public view in his editorial of July 18. The paragraph at the heart of the story about the Northern Plains National Heritage Area is precisely the one Tom’s journalistic eye picked from among all that’s been said and written about the national recognition of the rich heritage of North Dakota’s stretch of the Missouri River between Huff and Stanton.

The key feature of the designation by Congress is that the “Heritage Area means up to $10 million in federal money over 15 years. The funds can go to preserve and promote places like Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site at Stanton, or Double Ditch Indian Villages north of Bismarck. It can be used for better signs, better interpretation, better promotion and better preservation of the area’s cultural heritage.”  

Tom said that points to a solution, but that’s where the editorial needs clarification. It would not be a change in policy one iota to focus on the nut graf. It’s all the Heritage Area has ever been about to Sen. Dorgan and the good people involved in making this a reality.

The idea that this is some kind of federal land grab or that it encompasses every acre and lot in five counties has just been made up. It has no basis in fact. Someone mis-read the legislation and said it - it got repeated on a blog - and repeated until some came to believe it might be true. It’s not.

The bill states clearly that the Heritage Area designation applies to “a core area of resources” in the five counties and “sites, buildings, and districts within the core area recommended by the management plan for inclusion in the Heritage Area.” That management plan will be written after a period of public input, starting this fall.

This national recognition and the funds that go with it are unalloyed good things for North Dakota.

Tracy Potter

Past President

Northern Plains Heritage Foundation

Fargo Forum Gives Leafy Spurge to Heritage Opponents

Fargo Forum Opinion, July 20, 2009

LEAFY SPURGE: To central North Dakota landowners who object to designation of a five-county area bordering the Missouri River as a national heritage area. They apparently illogically fear the federal designation will attenuate their property rights. It won’t, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., as strong a champion of rural property rights as anyone in government, has said as much. He sponsored the legislation. The usual cast of characters, including the North Dakota Policy Council and the North Dakota Farm Bureau, has taken after Dorgan and Tracy Potter of the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation for supporting the designation. But if any tract of land in the state qualifies as a national heritage area, it surely is the Missouri River corridor between Bismarck and Washburn. Historical events of national importance occurred there. The designation does nothing to erode property rights, but offers opportunity to access funding to enhance historically important sites. It’s a good deal, and the whiners and complainers have no case.