May 31st, Deadline to sign petition asking Biden to protect beavers on public land

ACTION NEEDED – SPRING/SUMMER 2023    

Below find a link to a nationwide petition about protecting beavers on federal public (which is the short) and a longer more detailed letter (8 pages) signed by many environmental groups on same topic.

Please sign the petition & read the letter.

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.pdf

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As a second step – the information in the letter will help you to become an advocate for beavers  & you could write a short letter to SD GFP objecting to SD’s beaver trapping/hunting season.

This spring or early summer 2023  the SDGFP  Commission will be reconsidering their horrible beaver trapping season which is 12 months every place in SD except Black Hills where it is 12 months, 6 months and 3 months depending on where you are. The Black Hills National Forest is 3 months.

On our events page we always have dates of next Commission meeting with commenting instructions. Written comments can be submitted via on-line form at https://gfp.sd.gov/forms/positions/. .  Unless you want to talk or send directly to each Commissioner:   https://gfp.sd.gov/commission/members/. SDGFP Commission meetings are normally the first Thursday & Friday of the month, except for holiday conflicts & they normally skip August.  Letters received at on-line site by Sunday mid-night before the Thursday meeting,  end up in that month’s Commission Book (public record).

Hopefully we will create an on-line petition for SDGFP sometime in April.  We also need a campaign to contact federal land managers locally in SD and ask them to object to 12 months of beaver  trapping/hunting on their public lands – areas like Buffalo Gap, Pierre and Grand River National Grasslands, Custer National Forest, Army Corp of Engineers and BLM could be contacted. Federal agencies sign memorandum of understanding with GFP, allowing GFP to regulate hunting/trapping on their lands.  However federal agencies can supersede that, for example Buffalo Gap National Grasslands closed areas to prairie dog hunting, that GFP wanted open.

SD GFP has given them all the federal agencies (except the BHNF) 12 months of beaver hunting and last I asked the other federal agencies western half of SD had very few beaver. Only BHNF has a shorter season and there has been discussion of a moratorium of hunting/trapping in the Black Hills due to too few beaver seen.  Public lands are not like private lands as anyone can hunt on them, where on private land some of the land owners might protect beaver.

 SDGFP would be finalizing the 2024-25 beaver trapping hunting rule changes (if any) likely in June or July with proposals in April or May.

If the Commission does nothing —  in SD we can petition for rule change – but might  need to done  by May or June Commission meetings. PHAS hopes to have an internal working meeting on this issue in spring – contact Nancy if interested in the beaver issue.

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