oil patch – Page 8 – Dustin Monke

Serenity in the Bakken: TRNP North Unit balancing beauty against oil boom’s impact

THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK NORTH UNIT — Ron Sams remembers a time when very little of note happened here.

The U.S. law enforcement park ranger worked in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park from 1999 to 2001 before being transferred through the Department of the Interior.

He returned to the North Unit in 2008, just as the Bakken oil boom and all that came with it was beginning to dig into the northwest part of North Dakota.

“When I left here, I remember how quiet it was. When I came back, that was not the case any longer,” Sams said. “I’m not saying we’re as busy as Yosemite or some of the other parks I’ve worked in, but I’m seeing some of the same crimes here that I saw in other places. I should have expected it, because that’s what we’re supposed to do. But sleepy little Watford City, I think it surprised all of us.”

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An enlightening 12-hour drive around the Bakken

Five years ago, the drive from Dickinson to Williston was considered boring by some and peaceful by others.

Western North Dakota’s quiet beauty and emptiness, accentuated by Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit, surrounded dying towns such as Grassy Butte, Arnegard and Alexander.

Today, the 132-mile trek is a scene of semi trucks lumbering up and down hills, wild pickup drivers with out-of-state plates, vast crew camps, random infrastructure construction, dirt (Oh God, the dirt!) and, most importantly, oil rigs and wells.

On Thursday, my fiancée Sarah and I and put 435 miles on my car while spending more than 12 hours on an exploratory mission of the Bakken.

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Killdeer Area Ambulance Service working to keep up with oil’s impact

killdeer ambulance — Killdeer Area Ambulance Service Manager Ann Hafner, left, chats with squad leader Stephanie Bren on the steps of the service’s newly aquired ambulance on Thursday during an open house and groundbreaking for the service’s new ambulance station.

KILLDEER — Ann Hafner knew she wanted to become an ambulance volunteer after her sister-in-law, living in another state, died of an asthma attack when the ambulance responding to the call got lost en route.

“I didn’t want that to happen to anybody,” Hafner said.

Several years later, Hafner is living up to that goal as the manager of the Killdeer Area Ambulance Service.

However, she said it is becoming more difficult as the oil industry in the Bakken increasingly rears its booming head on the Killdeer landscape.

“It’s all coming this way,” Hafner said. “We have days when, ‘What’s going to happen next?’”

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Dickinson undergoing fast, amazing changes

Dickinson is a community changing so rapidly it’s almost to the point where it’s difficult to know exactly what is going where. Seemingly every day, a new building or business pops up.

The city has never been stagnant, however. In my short lifetime, I’ve seen a variety of changes.

I remember eating at Skippers and Sergios, going to Anfinsons for farm — and, as a kid, toy — needs, while shopping for groceries at Buttrey’s and going to Woolworths downtown, where my prime enjoyment came from getting to ride the escalator.

We’ve changed so rapidly over the past two-and-a-half decades that it’s amazing to sit back and realize that most of the businesses in town have held steady through one oil boom and bust, and now many are thriving like never before thanks to the latest boom.

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Growing trash problems can be fixed

trash 1 — An abandoned mattress sits in a ditch on the side of the road that leads to the south side of Patterson Lake outside of Dickinson on Monday. Littering and the abandonment of big items is becoming more of an issue in the Dickinson area, one of many impacts being felt because of the oil boom.

Trash and littering are becoming hot topics in western North Dakota. Just about anywhere you look, there are plastic bags and paper stuck in fences and sitting in ditches, or beer cans and bottles that have been dropped in random spots.

McKenzie and Williams counties in the much busier northern portion of the Oil Patch have been fighting an increasingly difficult bout to maintain clean prairies and cities than we have here in southwest North Dakota.

But don’t rest easy folks. As we see more and more oil activity and population influx, we’re simultaneously going to see a larger wave of trash.

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