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Private ditches removed from Buffer Rule

The leader of a Minnesota farm organization says Governor Dayton’s decision to remove private ditches from his Buffer Rule brings clarity to farmers and landowners.

Late last week Dayton asked the Department of Natural Resources to stop mapping private drainage ditches as part of the Rule’s jurisdiction.

Minnesota Farm Bureau president Kevin Paap tells Brownfield stakeholders now have a much clearer path.

“It’s going to allow farmers, farmland owners, local governments, county soil and water conservation districts to work cooperatively on implementation, now knowing that it’s the public waters and public ditches as defined by state law that will be the areas affected.”

He says Farm Bureau had concerns about which private ditches might be included in the maps.

“Were they exceeding their authority to expand control, inventing their own criteria?  Now that we know clearly that we’re going to concentrate on public waters (and) public drainage ditches, we’ll be able to move forward much quicker.”

A number of Minnesota farm groups, including Farm Bureau, plan to send Governor Dayton a letter asking his office to expedite the release of the DNR protection maps, which are expected to be released sometime this summer.