2025 Effort with SDGFP

We will submit those petitions for consideration at the May 8th Commission meeting. Folks and organizations can submit support statements to SDGFP.

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WHAT TO ASK FOR:

 Please write to the Commission and ask for reform of the beaver management in SD and ask for river otters to be reintroduced to western SD. (River otters use habitat created by beaver. Increasing beavers increases opportunity for otters)

Currently trapping/hunting is allowed 365 days of the year statewide on private and public land except on Black Hills National Forest land and a subset of private land in the Black Hills. See administrative rule:    41:08:01:07 . SD has a law that allows folks with “conflict beaver” to call up SDGFP who will then allow them to kill the beaver (SDCL – 41-8-23). Staff will also come and kill beaver on request.

 Please ask SDGFP Commission for:

1. A moratorium on beaver hunting/trapping in the Black Hills Fire Protection District and 

, 2. Also ask SDGFP to reduce or eliminate the months of beaver hunting/trapping from all other public land in SD, especially when the public land has a multiple use or wildlife management objective — to not allow more than 5 months of trapping/hunting. 

3. Folks should ask for 5 months of beaver trapping statewide (reduced from current 12 months) on private  land. 

4. Ask for GFP to create a management plan for beaver

5. Ask for GFP to prioritize non-lethal  control of “conflict” beaver

 Folks should ask SDGFP to create a beaver management plan, so SDGFP can address the importance of beavers as creators of habitat, and protectors of surface and ground water values and provide options  for non-lethal management of conflict beaver. The legislature was considering a bill (SB 73) in 2022 that would allow night hunting of beaver using night vision glasses (it passed).

We always provide information about contacting the SDGFP Commission and dates of the next Commission meeting in PHAS web site’s section on – Calendar events and deadlines

Also visit our Beaver Campaigns page https://phas-wsd.org/beaver-and-river-otter/

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2024 Effort with SDGFP

Our pro-beaver petition effort (5/2/24) with SDGFP was not successful. Here is a link to an Argus Leader article on that: 

with SDGFP https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/might-south-dakota-beavers-receive-some-protections/ar-AA1o43Yx

and reference in SD Searchlight:

https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2024/05/25/rodent-or-riparian-restorer-east-west-views-diverge-as-state-considers-beaver-protections/

However one Commissioner said she wanted to hear from folks about beaver.

 So we are asking people to keep writing  to the Commission all year long and  to ask for 1)  a moratorium on beaver trapping in the Black Hills, 2) reducing the statewide season to 5 month from 12 months, 3) better monitor the harvest on federal public lands  and 4.) to create a SD GFP Beaver Management Plan.  We are also advising folks to contact federal agencies to ask them to request that SDGFP monitor the harvest and for GFP to reduce the permitted beaver trapping/hunting  seasons on their federal land and for the Agency to install beaver dam analogs to help recover raise water tables and mimic beaver dams.  That campaign will be written up in the future.

PETITIONS FOR RULEMAKING

In 2024 we created three new petitions for rule making that are an  attempt to change SD GFP hunting seasons for beaver to allow less beaver trapping//hunting. These were presented at the May 2nd, 2024 Commission hybrid meeting, in Custer State Park at the event barn.  We seek groups and individuals to endorse the petitions.  The petitions seek a moratorium on beaver trapping/hunting on the Black Hills National Forest for 3 years. Some cleaning up of geographical descriptions, asking for hunter/trapper to report back on number and location of beaver killed on some federal public lands and to change the season length outside the Black Hills Fire Protection DistrictThe 3 petitions are below. If you have limited time, just read the longer petition:
Shorter sized petition with less (2) protections
https://phas-wsd.org/wp-content/uploads/Beaver-rule-change-petition-Final2024.short1_-1.docx
Medium sized petition with medium (3) protections
https://phas-wsd.org/wp-content/uploads/BeaverRuleChange-PetitionMedium1Final.docx
Longer Petition with the maximum (4) protections

https://phas-wsd.org/wp-content/uploads/Beaver-rule-change-petition_long1_-2024Final.docx
Charts and Maps referenced in petitions:https://phas-wsd.org/wp-content/uploads/Maps.ChartsBEAVER-December-2023.pdf

 These petitions are very similar to the 2023 petitions (scroll down). Folks can write to SDGFP Commission or testify on 4/2/24 in favor of a 3 year moratorium on beaver trapping in the Black Hills National Forest and/or a reduction in the  statewide (except the Black Hills) beaver trapping season from 12 months to 5 months. Those are the key points in the petitions.  If you missed testifying in May, you can still testify at the open forum of any Commission meeting moving forward in time and testify for beaver and ask for better care of beavers by SDGFP.

 For details on the 2024 May Commission meeting – https://phas-wsd.org/event/sd-game-fish-and-parks-may-commission-meeting-2/ 

Get petition endorsements

We ask for people who belong to environmental, hunting, animal welfare or other groups to get their groups to endorse our petition effort and to ask SDGFP for a statewide beaver management plan. In 2024 we got endorsement for some or all of the petitions from 3 environmental groups.   We want more to go on record with SDGFP asking for change to their beaver management. 

We can resubmit the petitions, when we gather more support. 

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OTHER PAST YEARS EFFORT

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SUMMER FIELD WORK 2024

     During 2024 Black Hills Fly Fishers sponsored  Beaver Dam Analog (BDA) construction volunteer weekends Saturday on Silver Creek in the northern Hills.
       We have a goal of supporting the BHNF Northern Hills District’s beaver dam analog (BDA) construction projects –   We ask folks to volunteer with the Forest Service to help build these dams
and Fly Fishers are helping Forest Service build the BDAs on July
20-21st
         For more info – visit the recording of our March 26th 2024 meeting: https://phas-wsd.org/event/volunteer-to-help-build-beaver-dam-analog-w-bhnf/
           Black Hills Fly Fishers also have a tree protection project, to paint trees with sandy paint that deters beavers from killing the specific tree.

BEAVER –PAST ACTIONs (2023)

In May 2023 Prairie Hills Audubon Society petitioned for rule change to seek a better beaver hunting/trapping rule, but the petitions were denied. 

SD GFP at the Commission meeting  on May 4th, 2023, decided to keep the old 2021 rule and did not make  changes to the season.   A hunting season is adopted as administrative rule. SDGFP arranged to do beaver winter cache surveys in the fall of 2023. The wood caches are the beavers floating food stores. The GFP staff presented a power point on this at the December 2023 Commission meeting and the audio can be listened to on the Commission Meeting Archive page and Nancy Hilding can send you a copy of the powerpoint (nhilshat@rapidnet.com). 

We also petitioned for a change to the beaver hunting/trapping season in late summer 2020 and were also denied then.

For details on the 2023 Commission meetings  — here are links to 2023 May and June meeting alerts:. https://phas-wsd.org/event/sd-game-fish-and-parks-may-commission-meeting-thursday-may-4th-friday-5th-2023/   

For June 2023   https://phas-wsd.org/event/sd-game-fish-and-parks-commission-meeting-june-2023/

WHAT TO ASK FOR:

While we did not achieve our objectives at May 5th, 2024 meeting, the Commission may reconsider its’ season after seeing the population data on Black Hills beavers they collect in fall of 2023.  So please write to the Commission and ask for reform of the beaver management in SD and ask for river otters to be reintroduced to western SD. (River otters use habitat created by beaver. Increasing beavers increases opportunity for otters)

Currently trapping/hunting is allowed 365 days of the year statewide on private and public land except on Black Hills National Forest land and a subset of private land in the Black Hills. See administrative rule:    41:08:01:07 . SD has a law that allows folks with “conflict beaver” to call up SDGFP who will then allow them to kill the beaver (SDCL – 41-8-23). Staff will also come and kill beaver on request. Please ask SDGFP Commission for:

1. A moratorium on beaver hunting/trapping in the Black Hills Fire Protection District and 

2. Also ask SDGFP to reduce or eliminate the months of  beaver hunting/trapping from all other public land in SD, especially when the public land has a multiple use or wildlife management objective — to not allow more than 5 months of trapping/hunting. 

3. Folks should ask for 5 months of beaver trapping statewide (reduced from current 12 months) on private  land. 

4. Ask for GFP to create a management plan for beaver

5. Ask for GFP to prioritize non-lethal  control of “conflict” beaver

 Folks should ask SDGFP to create a beaver management plan, so SDGFP can address the importance of beavers as creators of habitat, and protectors of surface and ground water values and provide options  for non-lethal management of conflict beaver. The legislature was considering a bill (SB 73) in 2022 that would allow night hunting of beaver using night vision glasses (it passed).

We always provide information about contacting the SDGFP Commission and dates of the next Commission meeting in PHAS web site’s section on – Calendar events and deadlines

Also visit our Beaver Campaigns page https://phas-wsd.org/beaver-and-river-otter/

RECENT PAST- SDGFP  inventoried beaver winter caches in the Black Hills, using helicopters, in a jointly funded effort that started in summer or fall 2023. They also plan to find suitable habitat for beaver reintroduction in the Hills & have habitat improvement efforts.

HISTORIC   – OLD FACTS FROM 2021 & 2022- They planned to have a report or proposal on beaver trapping/hunting in the Black Hills at a fall Commission meeting in 2021.  They actually had it at the December 2021 Commission meeting & no rule change was suggested. They claim they needed $30,000 to fund study to inventory the Black Hills beaver.  TNC had suggested it can be done for less money. Commissioners failed to pass rule changes for Black Hills beaver in 2022.      

==============================================================================================================We are supporting the BHNF Northern Hills District’s beaver dam analog construction project in August and September 2024. Exact dates not  chosen yet.

 We ask folks to volunteer with the Forest Service to help build these dams. 

 For more info on 2023 BDA project or visit the recording of our March 26th 2024 meeting: https://phas-wsd.org/event/volunteer-to-help-build-beaver-dam-analog-w-bhnf/

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Sign Nationwide Petition on Beaver to Biden before 5/31/23

https://www.change.org/p/ask-president-biden-to-protect-beavers-on-public-land?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=e19f6c40-1d8b-11e6-9760-d3e5d013af27

Letter to Biden from environmental groups on 2/27/23 – 8 pages with lots of information on the issue:
https://www.westernwatersheds.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Biden-Beaver-Letter.pd