SD Game Fish & Park’s June hybrid Commission meeting Aberdeen and Zoom
June 5 @ 12:00 pm - June 6 @ 11:00 am
SD Game, Fish and Parks June Commission hybrid meeting, in Aberdeen and Zoom, Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.. More details will be posted later.
When close to the date visit: https://gfp.sd.gov/commission/information/
You can testify in person or remotely by Zoom at 2 pm MT. It is requested (but not required) that you register in advance for remote testimony w/ Gail Buus , gail.buus@state.sd.us
Written Comments are due the Sunday before the Thursday, before midnight MT https://gfp.sd.gov/forms/positions/
They will be voting on the beaver trapping/hunting season rewrite.
They will be voting on a Draft River Otter Action Plan. https://gfp.sd.gov/UserDocs/nav/River_Otter_Action_Plan_2025_2029_Comm.pdf
They may be reviewing or discussing or voting on a draft Beaver Action Plan, however we have not seen comment deadline date yet. https://phas-wsd.org/wp-content/uploads/beaverActionPLan-May_2025_Commission_Book_-2.pdf
We are asking folks to testify on the Northern River Otter Action Plan and ask it to plan to reintroduce river otters to western SD and to improve riparian and aquatic habitat along the major tributaries leading from the Missouri River to western SD. We have river otter in eastern SD, but if river otter exist in western SD, they are anecdotal reports on occassional isolated individuals, not known to be breeding. We salo need for the corridors along the rivers to be more hospitable to otter by improving the riparian habitat along their edges or creating beaver habitat in side tributaries. The proposed plan does not provide for these objectives. Please ask for them to be added. Please ask for the Eastern SD population to be managed to be robust enough to send migrating individuals to western SD or support capture of some otters to translocate to western SD.
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