North Dakota
Longtime scientist talks effects of farms, dams and warming on Dakotas’ changing landscape
BISMARCK — Hundreds of thousands of years in the past, the realm now comprising North Dakota and South Dakota was lined by an inland sea. Later, big, migrating glaciers carved the fertile flat lands that characterize a lot of the area right this moment.
A brand new guide by two longtime scientists of the Dakotas surveys the area’s evolution from these prehistoric instances to the current day, when farming and human-driven local weather change have develop into the catalysts of a altering panorama.
Contributed / W. Carter Johnson
“Ecology of Dakota Landscapes: Previous, Current and Future,”
chronicles that expansive regional historical past. One in every of its co-authors, South Dakota State College professor emeritus W. Carter Johnson, started learning the ecology of the Dakotas greater than a half-century in the past. Johnson’s analysis has ranged from
the results of dams for the Missouri River’s cottonwood bushes
— work began when he was a doctoral pupil at North Dakota State College — to farming’s penalties for native grasslands, to the warming planet’s ripple results for the wetlands of the central and japanese Dakotas.
Johnson spoke with The Discussion board about his new guide and the problems he sees as most pressing for the pure world of the Dakotas. This interview has been edited for size and readability.
You write within the guide that if Lewis and Clark have been to see the Missouri right this moment, they’d “scarcely acknowledge the river that they wrote about 220 years in the past.” What’s modified?
I believe had they arrive over the hill into the Missouri Valley, for instance in 1940, nearly anyplace in North Dakota or South Dakota, they’d have acknowledged the Missouri River. They’d have seen the completely different sorts of forests, they’d have seen a winding channel, they’d have seen sandbars. The massive change, in fact, began in about 1952 when the dams have been constructed and these large reservoirs.
Nearly all these issues that have been the the reason why we (constructed the dams) have disappeared. And it makes you look a bit of foolish now whenever you look again on it. As a result of we do not know what we’re gonna do with that river — with these dams — when we’ve got to do away with them. No person is aware of.
Is it honest to say that you just suppose damming the Missouri was a mistake?
Oh, no query. I might have had no dams. And simply tried to determine the right way to make issues higher with different means. And if you need to have dams, and also you want the hydro (energy) for getting farms some electrical energy, then do it on a small scale. However you already know, hindsight’s at all times 20/20, proper?
Contributed / North Dakota State Water Fee
What do you see as the largest points dealing with the pure world within the Dakotas proper now?
I believe it is the tall grass prairie within the japanese a part of the Dakotas the place the impression is the best. There’s extra than simply grassland there, in fact. There are wetlands, as properly. There have been a number of million wetlands, in all probability nonetheless 1,000,000 left. However there have been many tens of millions of wetlands within the area previously, and we have misplaced about half of them to drainage. The opposite half are nonetheless hanging in there, however that is a fairly large loss.
How a lot of the tall grass prairie stays?
There’s no actual quantity, as I outline it. When you’re in search of purely examples of the tall grass prairie, we’re down in all probability within the one or two or 3% vary.
When you have been trying to do an actual restoration the place you get every part again, you’ll be very pissed off as a result of you possibly can’t even purchase all of the seed you want, not to mention getting all these vegetation to develop and to remain over lengthy durations of time. So it is a fairly troublesome place to be in proper now. And we’re attempting — my group — to exit and accumulate seed from a few of these remnants which might be left. As a result of as soon as they’re plowed up — and they’re nonetheless being plowed up — then they’re gone perpetually.
That’s the issue. A few of us try to show it round a bit of bit. However when we’ve got these excessive grain costs, like now, and the identical factor occurred in 2011 — a few of what’s left of the grassland was transformed over to cropland due to the worth. The flexibility to generate profits on that was too tempting to not do it. So we’re nonetheless shedding it.
By Justin Meissen. Offered, Yale College Press.
Why ought to folks care in regards to the lack of native prairie?
The prairie has been right here for 10,000 years, possibly 9,000, in its present kind. It’s been chugging alongside, taking good care of itself. When you take away it, you then’re eradicating no matter it was offering. Primary, I suppose, is biodiversity. When you add up all of the microorganisms and the bugs and the birds, I imply, it’s an enormous quantity.
I take into consideration this typically. My relations got here right here and made residing off of farming, they usually truly transformed from farming over to ranching, which was my stimulus to do the identical sort of pondering as properly. The concept you exchange an acre of prairie to an acre of corn, or any monotypic stand, is type of astounding. When you stroll by way of a cornfield, it’s all you see.
Lots of people have by no means been to an actual prairie. That is the opposite factor to know: What are we shedding right here? “It is only a bunch of grass on the market. It appears to be like type of weedy to me. It’s all weeds on the market.” Nicely, go to the unique ones that have been maintained by nature and now maintained by man, just like the Nature Conservancy, and also you’ll be fairly shocked what’s happening in soils and so forth. So I might say biodiversity is the primary factor that is being misplaced.
Contributed / W. Carter Johnson
There is a line within the guide the place you name the planting of shelterbelts “some of the dramatic modifications” to the panorama of the Nice Plains within the final century. I’m undecided that will have occurred to me, that these rows of bushes planted on farms might have such a consequential impact for the land.
I do not bear in mind who mentioned it, however it was some assertion made by an individual of authority, that the Dakotas are actually probably the most reworked panorama on this planet. Now, that’s a reasonably excessive assertion. However when you begin taking a look at it, possibly they don’t seem to be up to now off. As a result of we’ve misplaced virtually all of the tall grass prairie. We have misplaced share of what’s known as the blended grass prairie. And you then get the Black Hills and also you take a look at the absence of fireside and the way that’s modified every part. The Black Hills are usually not just like the Black Hills was once.
Now, they’re nonetheless fairly good they usually’re very cool they usually’re very good, as a number of the prairie areas are, and as some components of the Missouri are. So there’s nonetheless some little spots on the market (the place) we are able to get some sense of what this appeared like on the larger scale, however we’re left with little examples of what it was. And the query is whether or not we’ll lose these examples, too, or are we going to have the ability to increase them whereas we nonetheless have the animals and the vegetation to recolonize them?
Contributed / Yale College Press
You acknowledge within the guide that a number of the impacts of local weather change for the Dakotas do not look so unhealthy, however you finally conclude that its results for the area are going to be extra damaging than benign. Why?
(Local weather change is) having an impression now although it is not tremendous consequential. No person’s going out of enterprise proper now due to it or the farmers aren’t stopping the farm. But it surely may very well be in 50 extra years, the best way issues look. I’ve accomplished this wetland local weather change work for 25 years now. We ran our fashions, and I could not imagine — wetlands are usually not wetlands within the 12 months 2080. We discovered that they do not final lengthy. They dry up fairly shortly.
Does that embrace the Prairie Pothole area of the Dakotas?
That’s the Prairie Pothole area. We have accomplished 25 years of simulations, and our simulations counsel fairly critical issues with local weather change and wetland dynamics.
What do you suppose must occur to extra sustainably work the land within the Dakotas within the coming years?
The massive downside is the right way to set up it. We type of know what to do, however how will we get it to occur? Does authorities have to return in, using on the white horse, and maintain it? Possibly it does. However possibly there’s another venue that will work higher, particularly for people who find themselves delicate about an excessive amount of authorities. A whole lot of farmers are typically that manner.
So I do not know what the reply is, however I believe we have to do one thing large. I believe we have to strive one thing out of the field that hasn’t been tried earlier than or at the very least that hasn’t been tried as a collective group on all or most farms. I believe it might occur, and I believe it must occur if we’re gonna clear up the larger issues of local weather change and water high quality and wildlife and bees and butterflies.
Ecology of Dakota Landscapes, by W. Carter Johnson and Dennis H. Knight, is
accessible in e-book now
and can be launched in arduous copy this summer time.
Readers can attain Discussion board reporter Adam Willis, a Report for America corps member, at awillis@forumcomm.com.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of feature stories on the Pembina Gorge in northeastern North Dakota.
LANGDON, N.D. — The little ranch next to a county road seemed practically heaven-sent to the prospective Airbnb hosts.
Terry and Sarah Hinnenkamp had long dreamed of creating a “home away from home” for tourists who traveled the rolling hills and wooded beauty of northeastern North Dakota’s Pembina Gorge.
They even relocated from Fargo to Langdon, North Dakota, in 2019 to pursue that dream. But after fruitlessly searching for the right property for over a year, they had to put their search on pause.
Fate had other plans.
Contributed / Sarah Hinnenkamp
On a sunny July day in 2020, the Hinnenkamps and their two children had spent a day exploring the Gorge. On their way home, they drove by the Triple H Horse Ranch as they’d done countless times before. But on that day, they noticed it was for sale.
As a handful of curious horses looked on, the family climbed out of their vehicle. They learned the owner had found a new vocation, so planned to sell the horse-boarding/training facility. The land featured a mature thicket of trees and plenty of room for cabins or RVs. It served almost like a hub for local attractions, including the Gorge, Frost Fire State Park, the Mount Carmel Dam Recreation Area and Icelandic State Park.
At 9 acres, it was just the right size.
It felt right, too: Quiet and serene — a place to get away from it all.
“It was dumb luck,” said Terry, better known in Fargo as long-time on-air personality Rat on Y-94. “We walked out here and … this was just the perfect spot.”
“We had kind of given up, but we couldn’t have planned it better,” added Sarah.
The Hinnenkamps bought the land several months later and transformed it into Up North Cabins. Now they rent out two short-term vacation rentals: a fully winterized, 540-square-foot park model and a 2023 travel trailer.
Tammy Swift / The Forum
Since Up North’s launch on March 31, the family has been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of their cabins.
Guests have ranged from amateur paleontologists looking to dig up sea monster bones in the state’s annual public fossil dig to people looking to dig up family roots in the nearby Icelandic mecca of Mountain.
They’ve attracted sightseers, Northern Lights enthusiasts, contract healthcare providers, hunters, construction workers and wind turbine technicians from points as far-flung as Kansas and Texas.
People itching to snowmobile the Pembina Gorge Trail have already made winter reservations.
“We used to hear from people, ‘What do people do here?” Terry said. “’But once they experience all the scenery, the festivals, Frost Fire and all the things to do, they say, ‘We’re coming back.’”
Inspired by Netflix renovation show
The couple already knew this, of course.
Then known as Sarah McCurdy, she grew up in the country between nearby Walhalla and Cavalier, then graduated from Cavalier Public School.
Terry is from Fargo, but his mother grew up in Neche, 30 miles northeast of the Gorge.
When his family visited his grandmother in Neche, he and Sarah sometimes attended the same church service — never suspecting they would someday meet in Fargo.
It happened in 2003, when Terry’s co-host on the morning show asked Sarah to fill in on the show while a third member was on vacation.
It took her a week to learn “Rat” also had a real name. “It never occurred to me,” she joked.
They married in 2010 at Frost Fire Park’s outdoor amphitheater, which is when both really started to appreciate the area’s rich tourism potential.
Tammy Swift / The Forum
But they lived and worked in Fargo. They bought a character home in Fargo’s Clara Barton neighborhood. Terry’s love of history sparked the
“Ghosts of North Dakota” project,
in which he and Troy Larson chronicled the state’s ghost towns via a website and series of books.
Sarah left TV to edit magazines, then launched her own writing/marketing company.
They had two children: Elin, now 10, and Callen, now 8.
In between it all, both found time to binge-watch “Stay Here” on Netflix, which showed property owners how to give glow-ups to their short-term rental properties.
That ignited a desire to launch their own vacation rental in northeastern North Dakota. “We started Googling and saw that Frost Fire (ski area) had been purchased by a foundation. We could see that things were moving in the Gorge and we wanted to be part of supporting the tourism efforts,” Sarah said.
The Pembina Gorge contains undulating terrain, the state’s most extensive oak and birch woodlands and one of the steepest and deepest river valleys in North Dakota. In 2023, Gov. Doug Burgum announced an $8 million project to make the Gorge’s recreation area North Dakota’s 14th state park, which will enhance the area’s services, infrastructure and draw.
And so, timing it before their daughter started kindergarten, they moved nearly 200 miles, living with Sarah’s parents until they found a house. Terry got a job — this time, co-hosting the morning show on Maverick 105.1 FM in Langdon — while Sarah continued to run her business. Just a few months after he started, his radio co-host left to move to Montana.
Terry would have a natural rapport with the new co-host, as he happened to be married to her. Every morning, Sarah joins him on air via remote from the family’s basement, in between getting the kids off to school.
Contributed / Sarah Hinnenkamp
“We have fun,” she said, grinning. “The longer we do it, the more the filter comes off.”
As their new radio partnership emerged, they also worked at rehabbing their new property. They cleared out dead brush and carved walking trails into the groves. They hauled in truckloads of gray shale from nearby deposits to cover the campsites and created features like a natural playground out of tree stumps.
“Every time it rains, scrap metal comes out of the earth,” Sarah said, laughing. “We’ve had so many loads of scrap here. We’ve taught Callen to fish for scrap.”
Guests delight in the details
They decided to buy a camper for those marathon work days when all were too tired to drive home to Langdon.
That camper transitioned nicely into a B&B rental. The 45-foot trailer sleeps five and boasts an electric fireplace, recliners, TV, wifi, central air/heat and a double loft.
Contributed / Up North Cabins
It’s located just a stroll away from their “tiny house” rental, a renovated 2008 park model which was already upgraded with extra insulation, a home-sized furnace and an on-demand water heater when they bought it. They worked with the crew at a friend’s custom-home company to update cupboards and trim, install a knotty pine ceiling and design a fireplace area with matching knotty-pine surround and shelves.
The end result is compact but attractive and cozy. It features two bedrooms and a pull-out couch; a refrigerator stocked with water, soda and necessary condiments; a fully outfitted kitchen; a large flat-screen with free Netflix, and a little porch with double-swing, cozy throw and tasteful autumn decor.
Tammy Swift / The Forum
Outside, they’ve provided everything needed for a bonfire, including Adirondack chairs, a rustic split-log bench, firewood and kindling.
In fact, their days of brainstorming about vacation rentals have paid off. Numerous guests have commented on the cleanliness of the two units and the close attention to details. Realizing some of their visitors will arrive too late to cook or hunt down a restaurant, they provide them with a a frozen pizza from Johnny B’s out of Jamestown and a box of fresh doughnuts from Langdon’s Bread Pan Bakery for breakfast. Thoughtful touches like games, mosquito repellent, sunscreen and dog bowls are provided.
“You don’t want anyone to get here and think, ‘Oh I forgot,’ or ‘I need this,’ so we tried to anticipate anything a traveler might need,” Terry said.
Tammy Swift / The Forum
Sarah flexed her writing and research chops to provide guests with a comprehensive binder that highlights information like local restaurants, ideal photo-taking spots and border crossing information into Canada (which is just 17 miles north of Langdon).
By August of this year, Sarah said they were at 70% occupancy, which she credits to AirBnB (where they have a perfect five-star score so far). Written reviews are effusive: “Absolutely amazing,” a Rochester, Minnesota, guest named Samantha wrote. “It was so peaceful and so perfect if you have dogs. So much space to roam and explore. Terry and Sarah were extremely friendly and super helpful with any questions we had.”
The property has room for more cabins, although the couple said they don’t want to turn the spot into an overcrowded campground.
They’re already talking about future improvements, such as adding an event center to the spot which held the old riding arena.
“At some point in time, we’d like to live on the property and be the stewards of it,” Terry said.
So did the reality of Airbnb ownership live up to what they’d first imagined while watching Netflix?
“It’s more,” said Sarah, pointing out that they can visit with California guests one day and folks from Louisiana the next. “It’s so much fun. I love that they’re coming from everywhere. And everyone has been so friendly and so kind and the gratitude that people express — that’s what strikes me. And that helps us have more gratitude.
“We just want to build community, wherever people are from.”
Rates are $132 per night for the RV and $153 for the cabin this season. Learn more:
https://upnorthnd.com/
Tammy Swift / The Forum
FARGO — Vision Zero is warning drivers about the deadly consequences of leaving their lanes.
They say a majority of motor vehicle fatalities in North Dakota in 2023 were caused by lane departures.
A fatal lane departure crash happened roughly once a week in 2023, said Lauren Wahlman, the safety public information program manager for the North Dakota Department of Transportation.
Avoiding distracted driving, such as not using cellphones while driving, is an easy way to prevent leaving your lane.
“Distracted driving is very under reported, but as you can imagine, that is a huge reason why people are leaving their lane, and they’re crossing the center line or leaving the roadway; because they’re distracted,” Wahlman said.
Lane departures can be especially dangerous on two-lane highways where there’s no margin for error if you cross the center or edge lines.
“You have a lot less room to correct your mistake if you are distracted and you go off the intended lane, or you cross that center line,” Wahlman says.
The North Dakota DOT continues to put safety features on roads to reduce the chances of a lane departure. District Engineer Joe Peyerl said rumble strips on center and edge lines are now the standard on new projects, with the exception being some roads in populated areas.
In 2024, they’ve also been widening pavement markings. For drivers, practicing safe habits can help keep you safe if others on the road aren’t following the rules.
“Exceeding speeds can have detrimental effects on motor vehicle crashes, and the No. 1 thing you can do every time you get into the vehicle is buckle your seat belt. You might do everything right, but you can’t control what others are doing on the road. So a seat belt is going to be your best defense in a vehicle crash,” Wahlman said.
Wahlman also says if you see another driver repeatedly swerving in and out of their lane, to pull over when you can and report the vehicle to law enforcement.
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