5/17/26

Feds boosting ethanol but North Dakota soils are shot, too


Aquifer sources are not considered high quality for irrigation because of their salinity levels but fossil water from limestone contains the minerals that made us human. In my home state of South Dakota some eight million acres are salt-impacted due to seawater intrusion, fertilizer and other soil amendments, irrigation with saline water and roadway deicer applications. Soils are worn out from decades of pesticides, poor farming practices and manufactured fertilizers. Shallow wells and waterways suffer impairment from nitrate pollution making water less available especially where aquifer levels are dwindling.

In North Dakota soil salinity affects at least 6 million acres or about 13% of the state's total land area impacting over 90% of local agricultural producers. Traditional deep-rooted prairie grasses and diverse small-grain rotations have largely been replaced by heavy corn and soybean rotations allowing the water table to rise and deposit more salt at the surface. Expanding white and brown saline patches force farmers into a loop of spending money on seeds that fail to emerge exposing the trade-off between short-term financial profitability and long-term soil health.

In January, Earth hater and former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum pulled the Bureau of Land Management leases from American Prairie. In February BLM and Forest Service bumped the Animal Unit Month or AUM lease to $1.69 from $1.35 for one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month and created an app that locates unused grazing allotments but bison have been thrown off federal land.
Roads in northwest North Dakota are reporting extremely low visibility due to blowing dust and dirt. KELOLAND News also received photos from our viewers of dust storms in South Dakota. [Dust storms rage in North Dakota and South Dakota]
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