Around the State: February 27, 2023

The counties and cities within the state of North Dakota hold many interesting news stories.

Here are just a few of the feature stories that others are reading in communities around the state.

Shared superintendent bill killed in the house

A bill before legislators that would have required school districts with fewer than 475 students to share superintendents was unanimously defeated in the North Dakota House recently.

House Bill 1271 failed 90-0. Even the bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Dan Ruby (R-Minot), had a change of heart, saying “this would do harm to more school districts that it would potentially help.”

That sentiment was seconded by District 2 Rep. Donald Longmuir (R-Stanley).

Longmuir, a member of the House Education Committee, told House members passage of 1251 would require small school districts to actually increase staff and their respective budgets in order to hire people to handle additional tasks done now by superintendents.

Currently, school districts have the opportunity to share superintendents, if they want,” Longmuir said. “This would be a local decision, made by local school boards when the boards determine how and what would work best for them.”

(Story by Brad Nygaard, the Journal, Crosby)

Watford City’s first deer hunt comes to an end

At sunset on January 31, the first bow hunt to take place within Watford City limits quietly came to an end. Despite the variety of public opinions shared during the initial discussions about the deer hunt, 25 deer were harvested within city limits. The purpose of the hunt, according to city officials, was to curb the local deer population, which has seen record growth in recent years.

The city has been seeking ways to handle the ever-growing deer population, and having a city bow hunt was one of the things state officials suggested first. According to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department (NDGF), similar hunts around the state have been met with success, so city officials used similar programs to help guide the creation of this hunt.

It was initially suggested by NDGF that the city issue 30 deer tags for the harvest of antlerless deer. The Watford City Council voted to increase that number to 50 to ensure that the hunt would have a noticeable effect on the deer population.

Hunters were allowed to purchase up to three tags, and 23 hunters completed the designated safety requirements and purchased their tags.

(Story by Kristen Jones, the McKenzie County Farmer)

Elk Salt Water Disposal site explodes

At 10:26 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, the Elk Saltwater disposal, near the intersection of 35th St. NW and Highway 85 in Alexander, exploded and was quickly engulfed in flames.

Local fire departments responded and are trained on how to deal with these kinds of fires.

At the time of the incident, there was one male truck driver on the scene, presumably off-loading from his truck. He was seriously injured with severe, but non-life threatening burns and was air-lifted to a nearby hospital.

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation and no additional details were released at the time of printing.

(Story by Kristen Jones, the McKenzie County Farmer)

The ecosystems of the Turtle Mountains

Cody Clemenson, forest stewardship specialist of the North Dakota Forest Service, has streamed a segment on the Turtle Mountains through the Forest Service’s YouTube channel where he has focused on the trees’ history, resources and care.

“The Turtle Mountains are an outer layer of the Missouri as it is a plateau that rises 800 feet over the surrounding Northern Drift Prairie,” Clemenson said.

“Like most of North Dakota, this region was shaped by glaciers.

“The region is approximately 40 miles east to west and 20 miles north to south and extending into the Canadian province of Manitoba. The increased elevation results in an extra 10 inches of precipitation per year compared to the surrounding plains below, allowing this area to support a native deciduous forest, hundreds of large deep wetlands and lakes that are present throughout this geologic feature.”

Clemenson added that the Turtle Mountains hold two totally different ecosystems.

“The Turtle Mountain region is and always has maintained two distinctly different forest ecosystems,” Clemenson said.

“There’s the Oak Savanna which is primarily located along the foothills area.”

“This area has a much steeper terrain,” Clemenson said. “It mainly consists of burr oak and green ash overstory with native rangeland grasses in the understory.

“The other ecosystem is an Upland Hardwood forest that is typically found in the upper plateau. This area has gently rolling hills and receives higher precipitation than the surrounding plains area and it typically consists of a mixture of aspen, birch, green ash, boxelder, American elm and bur oak in the overstory with a mix of hazel, chokecherry, Juneberry, highbush cranberry, dogwood and willow species in the understory.”

Clemenson added that the Oak Savanna forest is fairly close to its origin prior to PreEuropean settlement because the ecological role of disturbance in its system wasn’t as significant as other sites throughout North Dakota.

(Story by Scott Wagar, the Bottineau Courant)

Williston school audited

The former Williston Public School District failed to maintain adequate accounting records for its financial statements in the 2020-21 school year, the state auditor’s office said.

State Auditor Joshua C. Gallion issued a 99-page audit report for the district on February 1.

The audit was initiated by citizen petition, due to concerns of possible irregularities. But the auditor ultimately could not give an opinion on the district’s financial statements at all.

“We were not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for our audit opinions,” Gallion wrote.

Williston Public School District No. 1 merged with the rural Williams County School District No. 8 at the end of that school year, creating the Williston Basin School District.

(Story taken from the Journal, Crosby)