Latest news with #FishandParks
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Black Hills beaver trapping moratorium advances as population tumbles
A beaver at Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. (Larry Palmer/USFWS) Citing a population decline and degraded habitat, South Dakota officials have advanced a plan to halt beaver trapping in the Black Hills for two years. The plan will block trapping during the 2025 and 2026 seasons in the Black Hills Fire Protection District. Trapping would remain open in the rest of the state. The state legislature's Rules Review Committee will need to approve the moratorium. In 2012, biologists saw 60 food caches — piles of woody vegetation built by beavers for winter — in the Black Hills. By 2023, they recorded only 16. Beavers occupied 52% of Black Hills watersheds in 2012, but just 23% in 2023. Rodent or riparian restorer: East-west views diverge as state considers beaver protections Beavers once numbered in the thousands in the Black Hills and the millions nationwide, but their numbers began to decline with the onset of fur trapping by European settlers. Officials said habitat loss, not modern trapping, is to blame for current population declines. But they also said they don't want trapping to contribute to the problem. 'The limiting factor is habitat degradation,' said John Kanta, section chief with the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks. Only one beaver trapping was reported in the Black Hills last season. Without beaver dams, faster-flowing water cuts stream channels too deep for beavers to work with. Cattle also trample streambanks, leaving fewer willow and aspen for beavers to feed on. A closed trapping season will help protect the beavers that are being reintroduced, officials say. Game, Fish and Parks is working with the U.S. Forest Service and volunteer groups to restore habitat through tree planting and manmade dams, and nuisance beavers from urban areas are being relocated to the improved habitats. 'It's a wonderful step,' said Hans Stephenson, owner of Dakota Angler & Outfitter in Rapid City and a volunteer for the restoration efforts. Beaver dams raise the water table, slow water flow, and create habitat that supports everything from aquatic insects to the brown and rainbow trout favored by anglers, Stephenson said. Alex Solem, senior wildlife biologist with Game, Fish and Parks, emphasized the broader ecological role beavers play. 'Any time there's beaver around, usually, it signals a really healthy ecosystem,' Solem said. If more Black Hills streams had beaver dams, he said, floodplain soils would hold more water, support grazing, mitigate flooding and lessen the dangers of drought and wildfires. In addition to the moratorium, officials adopted a new threshold-based framework to guide future decisions. Under that framework, trapping season would reopen if beaver occupancy in monitored watersheds rose above 80%, Occupancy between 50% and 79% would open the door to resident-only, private-land trapping. Levels below 50%, like now, would trigger automatic closure. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
South Dakota records best pheasant season in 13 years, state parks department says
A male ring-necked pheasant. (Photo by Travel South Dakota) Hunters bagged more pheasants last fall in South Dakota than they have for 13 years, the state department of Game, Fish and Parks said Thursday. More than 1.3 million roosters were harvested during the 2024 pheasant hunting season, the department said, with another 380,000 harvested within defined shooting preserves. 'The 2024 South Dakota pheasant season was absolutely spectacular,' South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden said in a press release. South Dakota, the governor said, is 'truly the greatest state to pheasant hunt.' The state saw more roosters harvested in two weeks of October 2024 than any other state during their entire season, the release says. South Dakota's postseason pheasant harvest figures come from 15,000 random surveys of resident hunters and 13,000 nonresident hunters, the Mitchell Daily Republic reported Tuesday. Questions include the number of days hunted, areas hunted and how many birds were harvested are all part of the survey. Pheasants Forever launches new initiative to expand outdoor access in South Dakota More than a million birds have been harvested in each of the past five years in South Dakota, but Upland Game Biologist Alex Solem of the parks department told the Republic that 2024 stood out. 'Our over-winter survival was absolutely phenomenal,' Solem told the Mitchell publication. 'It was certainly evident just driving around this spring, tons of roosters crowing everywhere, lots of hens selecting those roosters for mating purposes. Pheasant hunting is an economic engine for South Dakota. Pheasants Forever, a private conservation organization, put the financial impact of the 2023 pheasant season on the state's economy at $281 million. The release from Game, Fish and Parks on Tuesday did not include a financial impact estimate of the 2024 pheasant season, instead focusing on bird harvest numbers. Hunters averaged approximately nine birds per hunter, said Kevin Robling, secretary for the parks department. 'Habitat and access have been a top priority for the department, and that has played a key role in both abundant bird numbers and ample locations for hunters to target them,' Robling said in the press release. Landowners and farmers partner through habitat programs to open conservation land, using programs offered by the State of South Dakota, the federal government, and multiple conservation groups. Pheasants Forever partnered with the state in 2023 to pay landowners additional stipends for enrolling land in conservation programs, with the goal of adding 10,000 acres a year. In the press release on the 2024 pheasant harvest, Robling pointed specifically to the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) on the James River and Big Sioux River valleys, which provides the benefits of the long-standing Conservation Reserve Program, but also ensures access for hunters. 'These CREP lands are directly in the primary pheasant range and provide high quality grassland habitat and access as well,' added Robling. The 2025 pheasant season in South Dakota will take place Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, 2026. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ban on spreading human remains reinstated at Bear Butte State Park
Bear Butte is near Sturgis in western South Dakota. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) Lawmakers reinstated a rule Tuesday to prohibit the spreading of human remains at Bear Butte State Park in western South Dakota. The rule was originally set in 2002 after tribal leaders worked with the Department of Game, Fish and Parks to ban the practice. Bear Butte, called 'Mato Paha' in Lakota, is a spiritual site for Native American tribes. The 4,426-foot solitary mountain on the plains near Sturgis is a national historic landmark, and the area surrounding it became a state park in 1961. A ceremonial area and special campground are reserved for religious purposes, and visitors are asked to respect the area. The department and lawmakers inadvertently repealed the ban in 2019 when they changed several other rules simultaneously, said Jeff VanMeeteren, director of the Division of Parks and Recreation with the department. Tribal leaders requested the mistake be fixed, he said. 'Bear Butte is a sacred worship area by the tribes, and the leaving of human remains is just not an acceptable thing in their culture,' VanMeeteren said. South Dakotans can spread burial ashes at other state parks, VanMeeteren told lawmakers, as long as they get a burial permit and seek permission from the department. The legislative Rules Review Committee unanimously approved the change. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Residents clean up thousands of dead geese on Lake Byron
LAKE BYRON, S.D. (KELO) — Thousands of dead geese have washed up along the shores of Lake Byron, just north of Huron. Lake Byron can be a hub for snow geese. 'Most of the time, at this time of year, this place will become completely white with geese,' longtime Lake Byron resident Denis Drake said. Cimpl halts harvest operations in Yankton But this year, thousands of geese have turned up dead throughout the lake. 'We had such a mild winter, no snow, so a lot of the geese stayed up to about Christmas, and usually, they're gone by Thanksgiving. They just really started to get the bird flu. We didn't think we had near the problem until the ice started to thaw out, and that's when we really realized how many we had,' Lake Byron resident Patrick Breck said. So people have had to work together to clean up the lake. This is the third year they've had this problem, but this year has been the worst by far. 'It's just gotten really, really bad this year,' Drake said. 'So far, we've picked up in six different groups about 20,000,' Breck said. 'They don't dissolve very fast, and if you go swimming or something, you get one of them wrapped around, it's just not good,' Drake said. But community members have been doing everything they can to get the lake back to normal. 'We've got a neat community out here where we all get together and help each other out,' Drake said. 'People want to take care of their properties on the lake, and there's a lot they take a lot of pride in out here,' Breck said. The geese are being buried nearby on land owned by South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate OKs oversight of property leases, projects
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — The South Dakota Senate has given unanimous approval for lawmakers to have more control over long-term property leases that state government enters, as well as state Department of Game, Fish and Parks projects and leases costing more than $2.5 million. Republican Sen. Chris Karr is prime sponsor of both measures. The 35-0 votes on Monday sends them forward to the House of Representatives for further action. They are in response to deals that were made in the past six years while Kristi Noem was governor. DOC official: No contingency if new prison plan fails Senate Bill 144 would require legislative approval for GFP works. Senate Bill 145 would require legislative approval for 'any proposed real property lease by the state where the initial term of the lease exceeds a commitment of fifteen years and the base rent due during the initial term either exceeds $5,000,000 in total for the rental payments due during the term of the lease or $50,000 per month during the term of the lease.' In recent years, state government entered into leases for One Stop centers in several cities that are costing significantly more than when the services in those communities were offered at various locations. Data provided in the past to the Legislature's Joint Committee on Appropriations showed: In Sioux Falls, the One Stop lease cost $7,648,618 per year. That was a $5,598,740 increase. In Rapid City, the One Stop lease cost $1,760,250 per year. That was a $1,125,056 increase. In Spearfish, the One Stop lease cost $382,610 per year. That was a $197,983 increase. In Huron, the One Stop lease cost $328,474 per year. That was a $211,154 increase. In Madison, the One Stop lease cost $113,738 per year. That was a $29,018 increase. Karr noted that state agencies in turn also needed $11 million of new furniture when they moved into the new locations. The Senate on Monday approved a third Karr measure, Senate Bill 146, that would further restrict financial transfers within state government. 'These would stop those things from happening,' he told reporters afterward about the three-bill package. Karr said the oversight would be required regardless if the project resulted from a gift. Had the legislation been in effect, it would have covered the One Stop leases as well as projects such as the shooting range complex outside Rapid City that GFP plans to open later this year, at an estimated cost of $19.5 million, and the Outdoor Campus East renovations in Sioux Falls that will cost an estimated $6.5 million. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
