SD Game, Fish and Parks Commission October 2023 Meeting

SD Game, Fish and Parks Commission October Meeting was in Deadwood and occurred on Thursday 5th and Friday the 6th of October 2023. It will be hybrid and Zoom links will be available.  More details will be posted later, but as it gets close to the meeting – for details watch: https://gfp.sd.gov/commission/information/

Written comments are due before midnight on the Sunday night before the meeting.

You can testify in person or by Zoom, at 2 pm MT.

Go to past event calendar alerts on Commission meetings for more notes on general  Commission meeting procedure.

The finalization for Mountain Lion season (public hearing and Commission vote on proposal) that was planned for October, did not occur in October. The Commission killed the rule proposal from public petition at September meeting.

Visit PHAS  Mountain Lion alert or our alert in events calendar for the July & September Commission meeting for details.

We still ask people write or testify in opposition to hound hunting of  cougars and raccoons, as the Commission seems to want to allow hounding hunting in the Black Hills Fire Protection District by a different & future action.  There was a petition for rule making presented and considered on allowing hound hunting of raccoons for out-of-state hunters.  This petition was denied – it seemed that the vocal Commissioners wanted a rule to allow out-of-state hound hunters, but were not happy with how the petitioner designed the rule to permit this.

Year-round hunting of raccoons by hounds, boot hunt or traps is currently allowed in SD by residents.  Non-residents can only kill for a few months in the winter (Dec-March) when fur pelts thick, and can’t use  hounds. SDCL https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/41-6-23   Administrative rules – https://sdlegislature.gov/Rules/Administrative/41:08:01:08.02

SDGFP’s raccoon web page at SDGFP https://gfp.sd.gov/raccoon/   

SDCL on hounds can’t be used for big game, except Mt Lions as allowed by the Commission:, SDCL 41-8-15, https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/41-8-15

Mountain lion hunting restrictions https://sdlegislature.gov/Rules/Administrative/41:06:61:06

See our alert on NPBP.  Nest predator bounty program (NPBP) applies to raccoons, which are species most frequently killed by NPBP bounty hunters. https://phas-wsd.org/sd-nest-predator-bounty-program/

REPORT ON ACTIONS

The Commission modified the licenses offered through the Hunt for Habitat raffle package (Custer State Park Bison, Any Deer and Any Deer/Elk). The any antelope licenses were removed from the previous three license packages, and two any deer licenses were added to provide an opportunity for two additional license options, with a total of nine licenses issued..

The Commission tabled action on this topic of getting rid of one day fishing license until the November meeting to allow for additional public comment opportunity.

The Commission killed  petition for rule making to allow  out-of-state hound hunters of raccoons, but this was not opposition to the general concept, but objection to how the proposed rule was written.

You can go to the archives to listen to audio of past Commission meetings – https://gfp.sd.gov/commission/archives/

If you have a Macintosh, you may need to download free audio files translation software for Macs, to open PC audio files.

Agenda of Oct 5th-6th

https://gfp.sd.gov/UserDocs/nav/October_2023_Commission_Agenda_[Public_Copy].pdf

Hound hunting of raccoons by non-residents petition:

https://gfp.sd.gov/UserDocs/nav/Petition_203_-_Nonresident_Raccoon_Hunting_with_Hounds.pdf

Finalization – Free admittance at Parks some days, Hunt for Habitat rules

https://gfp.sd.gov/UserDocs/nav/FINAL_Mothers_Fathers_Day_PEL_Exemption_Repeal.pdf

https://gfp.sd.gov/UserDocs/nav/FIN_2023_Hunt_for_Habitat.pdf

To find public comment web page

https://gfp.sd.gov/forms/positions/

https://gfp.sd.gov/commission/information/

Written comments can be submitted at https://gfp.sd.gov/forms/positions/. To be included in the public record of the next meeting, comments must include your complete name and city of residence and meet the submission deadline of seventy–two hours before the meeting (not including the day of the meeting) (Usually Sunday night before midnight CT or MT depending on time zone of physical meeting)  If you miss that deadline it goes to record of the next meeting.  Go to our November Calendar for alerts on November Commission meeting – https://phas-wsd.org/event/sd-game-fish-and-parks-commission-november-2023-meeting/

You can testify at GFP meetings which are held in person and by Zoom, generally at 2 pm on the Thursday of the meeting, in time zone of the meeting.