A Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling sided with an Indiana farm family accused of disturbing what was designated a wetland by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. South Dakota Farm Bureau’s Wetlands Specialist Wayne Smith says the case took close to 17 years to settle.
He says the Appeals Court ruled the farm couple’s due process rights were denied in the wetlands case.
Smith says this case is precedent setting for those in South Dakota and across the country on wetlands determinations. He says the Court found the Indiana NRCS made a mistake calling the David and Rita Boucher property a wetland.
The Bouchers had removed nine trees on 2.8 acres the NRCS declared a wetland and then the agency demanded the farmers plant 300 trees per acre as compensation. The Appeals Court found the NRCS wrongly accused the Boucher’s of harming a non-existent wetland.
