BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Less than two months after the U.S. Forest Service completed the purchase of an historic Badlands ranch as part of a $5.3 million deal, questions are being raised about a related land sale.

The government had said it would balance the acquisition of the 5,200-acre Blacktail Creek Ranch in western North Dakota by selling an equal number of acres of the 1.2 million acres it owns throughout the state.

But the Forest Service’s subsequent plan to sell the promised 5,200 acres to about 40 ranchers in Billings County – and only to ranchers in that county – has come under fire.

Senator Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, says the Forest Service does not have that direction from Congress. And real estate agents question whether it’s legal.

“It doesn’t sound like legally they can do that – I would think that they would have to open it up for everybody because it is public land,” said Terry Clement, owner of West Plains Realty in Dickinson.

Mr. Clement said the land likely would fetch between $250 to $370 an acre – possibly as much as four times that if it were sold to buyers beyond the local ranchers.

Dave Pieper, a Forest Service supervisor in Bismarck, said the agency has worked with Dorgan’s office to craft legislation that would allow the sale of the land only to ranchers in Billings County. Pieper said it was his idea to limit the sale to that county’s ranchers.

Mr. Dorgan said he was unaware of the limitation.

“Nothing has been sponsored by me or anyone else that these parcels go only to residents of Billings County,” Mr. Dorgan said last week. “If that is what they are choosing to do, that is not the right choice in my judgment.

Mr. Pieper said selling federal acres in the county to outside buyers could hurt the livelihood of ranchers who lease the land for grazing. He also said the agency does not want to increase its own holdings in Billings County, where it already owns 290,000 acres.

“We just don’t want to do any irreparable economic harm to the ranchers,” Mr. Pieper said. “We have to try to achieve a balance – if we put 20 to 30 ranchers out of business, that would be a cost to North Dakota.”

Mr. Clement doubts that’s the case. “A hundred or 200 acres is not going to affect a rancher,” he said.

The deal for the Blacktail Creek Ranch – next to Theodore Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch site, where the former president ranched more than a century ago – was completed April 25. The federal government paid $4.8 million for the ranch and conservation groups contributed $500,000 for the purchase.

The location of the equal number of parcels to be traded were not identified in the contract between the government and the ranch’s former owners.

Jim Arthaud, chairman of the Billings County Commission, said county residents always have understood that an equal number of federal acres would be sold in Billings County to offset the purchase of the Blacktail Creek Ranch.

He said it was promised to appease county residents.

“The people of this community, this county and this commission don’t think that this ranch should have ever been bought in the first place – it’s a total waste of taxpayers’ dollars,” Mr. Arthaud said. “We fought this tooth and nail – that land needed to stay in commodity production.”

Don Schmeling, a real estate agent with Continental Real Estate in Dickinson, said the land likely would draw much interest if it were advertised for sale to anyone – and it would likely fetch much more money for the Forest Service, to offset the purchase of the historic ranch.

“I have mixed emotions because it is a good opportunity for ranchers,” Mr. Schmeling said. “I’m sure the public would like to own it – Badlands property does not come up for sale very often. There are a lot of people who would like to own the land just for hunting.”

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