County Brief

On March 22, Valley County Commissioners agreed upon the hiring of Zach Lypszyc as Assistant County Attorney. Lypszyc has interned with the Valley County Attorney for the last two years. He will graduate this summer and is expected to pass the bar before taking the position in September.

The commissioners are in opposition to granting the American Prairie Reserve’s (APR) requested change to their grazing permit. The APR seeks to change their BLM grazing permit to allow year-round grazing and other controversial changes to local land use policy.

Commissioners' opposition to the APR’s request stems from several concerns surrounding the possible negative impact that granting their request could have on Valley County.

The commissioners are concerned about adverse affects that a reserve and its wildlife would have on the local agriculture community and the economy. Commissioners also pointed out that the APR does not seem to have a domestic bison land management plan for BLM in place and also cited that there is a serious lack of data on the effects that the changes would cause. Commissioners also reinforced the requested change could damage BLM land and would be against BLM’s long-standing policy to advocate multi-use and grazing rotations. The cost of tearing down the fences and then replacing them would also be large and the electric boundary fence would be a serious impediment to public use of the land.

Commissioners have requested that BLM denies the requests made by the APR stating that the county is opposed to any plans that would put a reserve on BLM land and, that they own land and have every right to create a reserve on it. The prerogative of commissioners on the subject is that the APR can do whatever they like with their land, and oppose the idea for Valley County.

Repairs to roads in Opheim are nearing completion, and roads that were closed due to damage are now open. Construction to the 12 or so roads that had washed out should be completed by the end of the week.