Quack If You Like Prairie Potholes: USFWS Wants to Preserve 1.94M Acres

If you think the 48,000 acres proposed for the Tony Dean Cheyenne River National Grassland Wilderness is a big deal, check this out: Mr. Kurtz reads about an ambitious conservation project proposed by our friends at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. USFWS wants to create a Dakota Grassland Conservation Area that would preserve 240,000 acres of wetlands and 1.7 million acres of grassland in the Prairie Pothole region.

That isn't Florida! It's the Dakota Grassland Conservation Area
proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It's bigger than Florida.

Don't worry: USFWS isn't kicking us all out of East River. They plan to pay landowners not to tear up native prairie. USFWS estimates that over half of this untilled ground will be developed for farming or housing or some other use over the next 34 years. Such development would seriously degrade what USFWS calls "the backbone of North America’s 'duck factory' and critical habitat for many wetland- and grassland-dependent migratory birds."

To protect this habitat, Fish & Wildlife would buy conservation easements. Landowners keep their property rights and control over public access. Farmers can still farm the wetlands during naturally dry years and graze and hay the grasslands. The land stays on the tax rolls, so local governments don't lose out on revenue. On the budget side, this federal spending appears deficit-neutral: the money comes primarily "from oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf, excess motorboat fuel tax revenues, and sale of surplus Federal property."

USFWS is hosting three public meetings next week across the Prairie Pothole Region to talk about the plan and gets folks' input:

• December 14, 2010: Minot, ND, 7 p.m.–9 p.m. Sleep Inn–Inn and Suites, 2400 10th Street SW
• December 15, 2010: Jamestown, ND, 7 p.m.–9 p.m. Gladstone Inn and Suites, 111 2nd Street NE
• December 16, 2010: Huron, SD, 7 p.m.–9 p.m. Crossroads Hotel, 100 4th Street SW

This grassland proposal looks like a good deal for all parties concerned, from budget hawks to ducks and geese. But Uncle Sam welcomes your two-cents' worth. If you can't make the meetings, you can submit comments by e-mail to planning team leader Nick Kaczor.