South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission tackles multiple issues at January meeting

PIERRE The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission held its January meeting at the Matthews Training Center in Pierreon Jan. 11-12.

The commission re-elected Stephanie Rissler, of Vermillion, as chairperson and Travis Bies, of Fairburn, as vice chair.

Wildlife finalizations

The commission adopted several waterfowl seasons with no change from 2023, finalizing the seasons for 2024. Those seasons are as follows:

Duck season

Early fall Canada goose season

Goose Season

Special Canada goose season

Spring light goose season

Sand hill crane season

Tundra swan season

Youth waterfowl season

Wildlife proposals

Nonresident Waterfowl

The commission proposed to add additional licenses to the Nonresident Waterfowl hunting seasons. The additions include:

Adding 210 licenses to the 10-day statewide, NRW-00B area

Adding 50 licenses to the three-day NRW-00V area

Adding 55 licenses to the 3-day NRW-00z area

These additions fall within the 5% yearly increases allowed in statute.

Bighorn sheep

The commission also proposed to add one bighorn sheep license to the Custer State Park Unit, and four licenses to the Hells Canyon Unit for the 2024 Bighorn hunting season. The proposal would also provide the flexibility to increase the maximum amount of licenses to 20.

Elk

The commission proposed to increase the maximum licenses that could be available for all elk hunting seasons. The actual proposed licenses available for the 2024 Elk hunting seasons will be given at the March meeting, when the commission will hear survey and harvest data collected from the 2023 season. This action simply gives the Commission the flexibility to react to the forthcoming data.

Public comment opportunity and upcoming meeting

To hear the discussion on any of the topics on the agenda, audio from the meeting is available through South Dakota Public Broadcasting and will soon be available on the GFP website as part of the meeting archive.

To see these documents in their entirety, visit gfp.sd.gov/commission/information.

To be included in the public record and to be considered by the commission, public comments must include a full name and city of residence and be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CT on March 3.

The next GFP Commission meeting will be held in Pierre March 7-8.