ND Farmer Challenges Decades-Old Easement Interpretation

LaMoure County, North Dakota, farmer Cody Peterson has filed a complaint against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over interpretations of a 1963 easement on property owned and leased by his family. Pacific Legal Foundation Senior Attorney Jeffrey McCoy, representing Peterson, said it is unfair to so broadly interpret something that was so loosely defined over 60 years ago. “The deed didn’t actually specify what they covered, and this has led to some problems. The Fish and Wildlife Service has gone after farmers in the past, criminally, for violating these easements.” Within the past five years, USFWS started issuing maps to farmers that laid out areas that were supposed to be covered by easements, including maps declaring prairie potholes as small as one one-hundredth of an acre. “Cody is an example of it. He effectively, under the Fish and Wildlife Service map, can’t use half of his farmland because of these pre-existing easements and the Fish and Wildlife Service’s interpretation of these easements.” A court date has not been set yet, but a ruling is expected within the year.