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APNewsBreak: $50 Million In Claims For Grasslands Fire

Associated Press0

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Ranchers and landowners filed more than $50 million in damage claims over a prescribed burn that veered out of control and burned 16,000 acres in North Dakota and South Dakota.

That’s according to a letter from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in which he denies the claims. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter to Sen. John Thune — sent last week— on Tuesday.

Sixteen landowners filed claims after the Pautre (PAW-tree) Fire burned out of control in April 2013. The fire began as a 130-acre controlled burn by the U.S. Forest Service on the Dakota Prairie National Grasslands.

In explaining the denial, Vilsack said the forest service relied on forecasts from the National Weather Service in Rapid City, South Dakota, that ultimately proved inaccurate.

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