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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Slow but Sure Decline in North Dakota Farmland

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Monday, June 14, 2010   

FARGO, N. D. - It's happening slowly, but every year, more North Dakota farmland is being lost to development. The annual amount of farmland being plowed under to make way for homes and businesses is small but consistent, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

State Conservationist Paul Sweeney with the Natural Resources Conservation Service says although North Dakota's loss rate is among the smallest in the country, it is often the very best farmland being paved over because of its suitability for building.

"They like it because it's flatter, the soils are better; they don't have limitations like a high water table and maybe poor subsoil conditions, that they would have to deal with when they were doing excavation."

Sweeney also notes that, once prime North Dakota cropland is turned into new residential and business developments, it is lost forever for agricultural use.

"Well that's the sad thing. Normally, once it's converted to another use - in particular, urban or commercial, or some of the energy uses in the state of North Dakota are consuming some acreages - and once that happens, it rarely comes back."

He says well-managed farmland provides wildlife habitat, supplies open space and helps filter impurities from the air and water. The report says livestock grazing consumes a majority of available agricultural land. The rest, where water is available, is planted with crops.



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