In Minnesota, there is a growing movement against the buffer strip law mostly on the grounds that the landowners should be paid for the land they would be required to set aside. Certainly that is good reason to be opposed to the law; but, our opposition should be much wider and deeper than that.
Picture, if you will, a section (640 acres) of good cropland producing good food for you, for me and for many more people both near and far, far away.
That, dear ones, is a good picture.
Now, picture that same crop land with a 16 ½ or 50-foot buffer strip on one or more sides of that same good field. Soon thereafter, with no burning or cultivation and a steady buildup of turf and with a few wet years that good crop land will become wetland. After a few more wet years that wetland becomes swamp. Much sooner than you expect, that swamp will become part of another Devils Lake.
I saw it happen both in North Dakota and in South Dakota (from Groton north then east to the river). Anytime you impound much water with or without a buffer law you are going to get some or much flooding in a surprisingly short period of time.
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East of Karlstad, Minn., I clearly remember seeing farms, farmers, working farm tractors and working farm machinery on land that is now called Twin Lakes.
East of Middle River and Holt there were many farms, many farm buildings and farmers on land that is now covered with water and cattails.
Other cities and areas in Minnesota that have suffered from too much water are cities like Montevideo, Granite Falls and much of that whole western part of our state and from there going east on Highway 212 all the way to some Twin Cities suburbs and to the Mississippi River. With the buffer law in place, agriculture in Minnesota as we have known and seen it will in time be a thing of the past.
What follows, of course, will be lower production and higher food prices. Every single person living in our state will be affected in a negative way if this law is not overturned.
If this law is not eliminated, there will be in our Minnesota economy less jobs, more taxes and less money.
"This is no time for modification and compromise." That is the message our Minnesota governor and every single legislator needs to hear. Please help me deliver it.
Carlson lives in Karlstad, Minn.
