Around the State: May 22, 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.

New champion trees in North Dakota

Citizens of North Dakota were enthusiastic last year in searching for the biggest trees of each species in the state.

State Forester Thomas Claeys is pleased to announce that nine new champion trees and one new second place champion have been added to the North Dakota Register of Champion trees.

The Register is the official list of the first and second largest trees of each tree species in the state.

The cottonwood (Populus Deltoides), owned by Paul Deedee on a farmstead in Cass County, is a new addition to the Register and is now considered the largest tree in North Dakota.

The tree was nominated by Glen Lihbrecht. This new state champion has a total of 493 points for having a circumference of 11 feet 9 inches, height of 123 feet and average crown spread of 77 feet.

The river birch (Betula nigra) owned by Michele Stockert in Bismarck, is a new addition to the Register. The tree was nominated by Sandy Hansen of Valley City. This new state champion has a total of 217.75 points for having a circumference of 11 feet, height of 66 feet, and average crown spread of 79 feet.

The littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata) owned by the Arlan Scholl of the Bismarck-Mandan Elks Lodge in Bismarck is a new addition to the Register.

The tree was nominated by Duane Elness of Cavalier. This new state champion has a total of 157.5 points for having a circumference of 8 feet 3.25 inches, height of 47 feet and average crown spread of 45 feet.

The Champion Tree program of North Dakota is sponsored by the NDSU-North Dakota Forest Service. It is patterned after the National Big Tree Program sponsored by American Forests.

All state champion tree records are on file at the headquarters of the North Dakota Forest Service and can be viewed on our website at https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/ndfs/about-north-dakota-forestry/champion-trees-of-north-dakota.

(Story taken from the Cavalier Chronicle)

Noonan fatal fire case is now closed

Questions about the fate of Connie Allen have finally been answered.

Divide County Sheriff Zach Schroeder said his office received word on May 4 that a death certificate was being prepared.

That news, Schroeder said, brings a sense of relief.

“Yeah, definitely a sense of relief,” he said. “Closure for the family as well as for law enforcement. All of law enforcement that was involved, including the fire departments, first responders, especially when we’re a close knit community. We all knew Chad and Connie.”

The determination comes more than six months after a fire consumed the rural Noonan home occupied by the Allens.

Chad Allen, 38, died as a result of injuries sustained in the blaze. His body was discovered by law enforcement at a vacant farmstead, but the remains of Connie, 45, were not conclusively identified.

Investigators from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and State Fire Marshal’s office spent days following the fire searching for signs of Connie’s remains. Items taken from the debris made their way to the state crime lab, then to a private forensics lab located out of state.

That lab’s work has now lead to a death certificate being generated.

“The death certificate is signed off ‘accidental death’ per the fire,” Schroeder said.

(Story by Brad Nygaard, the Tioga Tribune)

New details in death of Brianne Anderson

More details are surfacing in the shooting death of 32-year-old Brianne Anderson. Anderson was shot at a residence in Watford City around 11 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22, and died the next morning at the hospital in Minot.

At that time, police offered limited information, confirming that a woman died in a shooting that took place at an apartment complex in the 700 block of Main Street in Watford City, and that a male was also injured.

At press time, no charges had been filed in the incident.

The McKenzie County Farmer spoke with Watford City Assistant Police Chief Korey Lass who outlined the investigation that has taken place over the last six weeks.

“Several items of evidence are still being tested at crime laboratories,” said Lass.

Lass did confirm that the investigation centers on a single person of interest who lives in the community, and at the time of the interview there were no other potential suspects that law enforcement was trying to locate.

(Story by Steve Hallstrom, the McKenzie County Farmer)

Rare earth elements likely in Williston Basin

Rare earth elements and minerals are in high demand for the United States, and North Dakota has signs of the necessary materials deep in the soil.

The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources say the state’s Geological Survey has found indications of several critical minerals in the Williston Basin.

The N.D. Geological Survey says cobalt, gallium, germanium, lithium, and several other rare and critical minerals are present in the more than 1,700 samples taken from lignite beds across a 340 square mile region.

These minerals are used for multiple technologies, including rechargeable batteries, fiber optic cables, LED displays, and multiple other modern machinery.

Experts say they can’t put their shovels in the ground quite yet, as they are looking for possible locations with higher concentrations or thicker lignite deposits - which are predicted to hold the minerals.

“Now if we can go back and start to look and actually take some samples and see if there is rare-earths in the coal,” said Levi Moxness, a Geologist with the North Dakota Geological Survey. “If there is a thick coal deposit right underneath the Bear Den Member, that would be probably one of the highest, if not the highest, concentrations of rare earth elements and these other critical minerals - certainly in North Dakota. I think it would be very competitive with any other coal in the U.S.”

“The impact of finding some more concentrations of rare earth minerals is that it could diversify North Dakota’s mineral resource space,” said Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat, Professor of Geology Department of Earth, Environmental and Geospatial Sciences at NDSU, “Right now we are mostly dependent on petroleum and lignite in terms of mining, but there are all sorts of other types of elements that could be extracted.”

(Story by Ty Schonert, the McKenzie County Farmer)