The Office of Resource and Civil Management has responded to the Faded Lands Community Board’s petition for aid to the strip’s farmers, confirming that it has received the accounts compiled at last month’s listening session and that it will open a review. The review, the office stated, will not take the form of relief. Assessors will instead be sent to the strip to examine “land stewardship and husbandry practices” on the affected farms and to determine whether the ground was worked “in keeping with regional standards.”

The office declined to declare the state of emergency the Board had requested. A spokesperson said the failures remained “a matter under review,” that the office “does not characterize conditions as regional in advance of findings,” and that residents would be advised of any determination “as and when appropriate.” Asked whether the review would weigh the accounts of the farmers themselves, the spokesperson said only that the assessment would “proceed according to standard procedure.”

No farmer from the strip was named in the office’s notice, and none we reached would speak to it on the record. The Board, which had asked that the matter be set down on the record, did not respond to a request for comment by the hour of printing.