Clean Water Wildlife and Parks Amendment

cwwp ad — Submitted Photos
At top is the North Dakota Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks ad with the slogan “Our natural heritage makes North Dakota special.” At bottom is a photo from iStock titled “Badlands National Park — South Dakota.” Opponents of the measure criticized advocates for using the South Dakota Badlands instead of the North Dakota Badlands.

Images of the wrong state’s Badlands were used on a direct mail advertisement paid for by the proponents of North Dakota’s Measure 5, the Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks Amendment that would funnel millions of dollars in oil tax revenue toward enhancing outdoor recreation and conservation efforts.

The ad, paid for by North Dakotans for Clean Water, Wildlife & Parks, was sent to addresses throughout the state last week promoting “North Dakota heritage.” It features two photos taken in the South Dakota Badlands, according to numerous online image searches.

Steve Adair, Ducks Unlimited’s director of operations for the Great Plains Region and spokesman for North Dakotans for Clean Water, Wildlife & Parks, stated in an email Tuesday that the photos were incorrectly labeled by a stock photo vendor.

“Yes, we made a mistake, and used the photo provided to us by our vendor,” Adair wrote. “It is the North Dakota way to fess up to a mistake and we are doing that. … This is just more grasping at straws by our opponents to divert the people of North Dakota from the real issues of how are we going to maintain our clean water, recreation and world class fish and wildlife resources in the face of such drastic changes.”
Continue reading “Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks Amendment advocates used South Dakota images on ads”

Growing up, my family taught me about needs and wants. If we went to the store and I saw a toy I wanted, my parents would ask me, “Do you really need that toy, or do you just want it?” Of course, usually I just wanted it. And why not? Someone else was paying for it. The trouble was, I also needed new pants, underwear or necessary school supplies. So, my parents’ money went to those things instead and, if I was lucky, I got the toy at Christmas or on my birthday.

The moral is that you can’t always have a toy simply because you want it. Sometimes, you need the essentials and, if you’re patient, eventually you’ll get what you really want.

This seems to be the case with Measure 5, commonly known as the Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks Amendment. Over the past few months, a rhetoric of Utopian promise from proponents, apocalyptic fear from opponents and half-truths from both sides have made this measure one of the North Dakota’s most-watched campaigns of the 2014 election.

In short, Measure 5 would devote 5 percent of the state’s oil extraction taxes toward conservation spending.

Continue reading “The difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’ in North Dakota”