SD Game Fish and Parks May Commission meeting

SD Game, Fish & Parks Commission’s May Meeting is in Custer State Park, Thursday-Friday,  May 2-3, 2024, at the Event Barn.  The agenda can be viewed here – https://gfp.sd.gov/UserDocs/nav/Commission_Agenda_-_May_2-3,_2024_Public_Copy.pdf

Folks can testify for 3 minutes at 2 pm MT in person or by Zoom or phone on rule finalizations and/or at the Open Forum . Visit this web page  for more details: https://gfp.sd.gov/commission/information/

It is normal, traditional for SDGFP to present furbearer season rule change proposals in May.

Prairie Hills Audubon Society has  created three new petitions for rule making that are an  attempt to change SD GFP hunting season for beaver to allow less beaver trapping/hunting. These will be presented at the May 2nd, 2024 Commission hybrid meeting, in Custer State Park at the Event Barn.  We seek groups and individuals to endorse & testify for the petitions.

 The petitions seek a moratorium on beaver trapping/hunting on the Black Hills National Forest for 3 years, includes 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 District from 12 month to 5 months, The 3 petitions are below. If you have limited time, just read the longer petition:

There will be finalization on proposed CSP coyote and bison hunting rule changes.

There will  also be finalizations on season rules for :

Small Game Hunting Seasons
a. Grouse Hunting Season
b. Partridge Hunting Season
c. Quail Hunting Season
d. Cottontail Rabbit Hunting Season
e. Tree Squirrel Hunting Season
f. Snipe Hunting Season

They will be adopting “Action Plans” for pheasant, deer & bobcat.

SD GFP normally meets on the first Thursday-Friday of the month, unless those days are close to a holiday and then the meeting week may shift. They normally don’t meet in February and August.

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 .
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. If there is rule finalization(s) you get 3 minutes per each rule you want to testify on. During the Open Forum, you get 3 minutes to testify on anything.