To the Editor,
The Fillmore County Board of Commissioners made the right decision in not approving the sale of the Larson farm to the DNR as reported in the December 4 edition of the Fillmore County Journal. The DNR doesn’t need another 100-200 acres of cropland under their control, even if some of it is highly erodible land. Most of the farmers in the east end of Fillmore County farm this type of land. We use no-till and grass waterways to handle this type of cropland.
In the early 1970’s the DNR bought 400 acres of my family’s cropland and woods. I would invite the Larson family and any interested others to tour the DNR holding in Holt township, Section 22 to see for themselves what kind of stewards of the land the DNR are. Early on they planted pine trees on the steeper areas. No maintenance has happened since. Today, sadly, the pine trees are overgrown with boxelder trees, a weed tree.
The Larson farm has both Minnesota Highway 43 and Fillmore County 13 roads going through it. The DNR has never been good in dealing with road projects.
There is a young farmer in the area who would have liked to buy the Larson farm.
Robert Anfinson
Peterson, MN