Today the Rice County Farm Bureau sponsored a Rice County Buffer Update meeting in Faribault. As you can see there were a lot of farmers and landowners that are still trying to figure out what the "Buffer Law" really means. Just last week it was announced that the "Buffer Law" applied to public waterways but not private ditches. The Department of Natural Resources is in the process of developing a map of public waterways so landowners would know if the law applies to their land. Apparently the DNR and BWSR were assuming private ditches were included until the clarification.

I attended a couple of Buffer Law informational meetings last summer and the update today. A couple of major themes seemed to come up at all the meetings I was at. First, there is still a lot of confusion about the law and how much local control or flexibility there is and who is going to pay for it? If the state of Minnesota is not going to allow me to farm this land, will I at least get a cut in my real estate taxes? I suspect the law will come up in the next Minnesota legislative session to address some of these issues.

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