White Paper Announcement

The Badlands Conservation Alliance has begun to put together a White Paper on its concerns about the North Dakota outback, particularly the Badlands. We believe that the people of North Dakota (and beyond) are eager to know just what is at stake in the Little Missouri River Valley in the third decade of the twenty-first century. They want to know what sorts of development threaten one of the most storied and important places in America.

Crocus photograph by Jeff Weisfpenning

We intend to publish under one cover a careful list of BCA concerns. We believe they are the concerns of everyone who loves the Badlands. The White Paper will not only provide the people of North Dakota a handy guide to these issues, but provide enough factual information so that our friends can make arguments on behalf of western North Dakota among their friends, colleagues, family, and legislative representatives.

We believe that most friends of the badlands are too busy to follow all the developments closely—the proposed bridge over the Little Missouri near the Elkhorn Ranch, the proposed refinery just at the portal of Theodore Roosevelt National Park—and that what they need is a concise analysis of each threat or concern, with the facts requisite for useful and meaningful conversations.

The BCA does not presume to speak for all North Dakotans. Nor do we oppose economic development in the badlands. But we do strongly believe that all development in the badlands and its environs should be undertaken with great care, to ensure the least possible impact on the environment. This includes placing industrial facilities where they are least obtrusive. It includes cooperating with Theodore Roosevelt National Park to protect its three widely separated units. It includes working hard to limit dust, noise, and other intrusions on the restorative experience of being in a National Park or in one of the nation’s precious National Grasslands Units.

The great bulk of the North Dakota population lives well east of Jamestown. About 40% lives east of I-29! Those Dakotans have few opportunities to visit the badlands. When they do, they mostly stay on pavement. Our goal is to persuade more lovers of nature and the few untrammeled landscapes of North Dakota to make more frequent and more penetrating visits. We know that the more people that experience the badlands, the more we can build a consensus to conserve all of it (meaning that resource development is permitted with care) and preserve some of it (limit industrial access).

We take great joy in being the eyes and ears of the people of North Dakota (and beyond) in carefully observing developments in the badlands, and reporting to our friends and fellow Dakotans what we see and what we think is at risk.

Look for our highly-designed and illustrated White Paper sometime during the early summer of 2023. Join the Badlands Conservation Alliance to help us serve in this important capacity. Contribute to the BCA in any way you can. And please cheer us on as we do what we regard as not only important work, but in many cases urgent work to maintain the beauty, integrity, serenity, and uniqueness of the Badlands.