Salazar outlines grasslands plans; Feds seek easements in three states

A plan to carve out almost 2 million acres of native prairie as protected habitat represents a new approach to federal conservation policy, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said Friday in Sioux Falls. Salazar was in South Dakota to promote the Dakota Grasslands Conservation Area project, a $500 million plan to protect critical waterfowl habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region that covers eastern South Dakota and parts of North Dakota and Montana. Under the plan, federal officials would, during the next few decades, seek perpetual easements on 240,000 acres of wetland and 1.7 million acres of grassland in the three states. In contrast with other conservation initiatives, however, it would allow some continued agricultural use. Wetlands could be farmed if naturally dried, and grazing and haying would be allowed. But commercial development on the land would be restricted. Roads, pipelines, wind farms and other projects requiring an easement would be approved in limited circumstances. The landowner would retain property rights, and the land would stay on the local tax rolls...more

The property grabbing virus is alive and well. Owning 30% of the land in the U.S. just aint' enough for the federales.