As a North Dakota landowner, I must comment on the issue of buffer zones around wetlands that is causing such dissention in Minnesota.
My family has a large, deeply-cut wetland and a watercourse on our property. My late brother, who was an expert in these matters, insisted on a year-round buffer zone around the wetland, and until last year our renters also voluntarily left one on the field side of the watercourse over winter.
These are ten-foot buffer zones designed to keep silt from damaging the wetland and clogging the watercourse. The wider buffer zones proposed in Minnesota are designed to keep chemicals out of wetlands, which prevents them from getting into people's water supplies.
If all landowners were responsible enough to require buffer zones, there would be no need for government regulation. The Minnesota regulations are sensible, and North Dakota should enact the same. The only change I would make would be to exempt this land from property tax.
As for neonicotinoids, they kill pollinators that are essential to produce crops. No bees and other pollinators, no crops.
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Governor Dayton isn't waging war on agriculture, he is protecting it. I wish we had equally responsible government in our state.
Starke lives in Valley City, N.D.
