· 2008 Walk-In Area Enrollment Under Way
· Landowners Sought for New Hunting Access Program in 2008
· Brown Trout to be Stocked Below Fort Randall Dam
· Fishing Tournament, Special Event Planning Starts with GFP Application
2008 Walk-In Area Enrollment Under Way
PIERRE, S.D. – Enrollment in the 2008 Walk-In Area, S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department hunting access program, has begun and will be open for enrollment until June 1.
GFP began the Walk-In Area program to lease private land for public hunting opportunities. The Walk-In Area program was created to provide more public hunting opportunity, and provide landowners with compensation for allowing unlimited public hunting. The most sought after habitat types are those associated with the Conservation Reserve Program. Sign-up for Walk-In Area land is coordinated through local conservation officers, and pay is determined by the quality of habitat and wildlife numbers during the hunting seasons.
“We have made significant strides in our program since its inception in the late 1980s,” said Walk-In Area Coordinator Bill Smith. “However, we look forward to building on those strides to increase hunting opportunity for the average hunter.”
The Walk-In Area program currently leases about 1.15 million acres of private land for public hunting access. “The program has received very strong support from both resident and nonresident hunters,” Smith said. “Most importantly, we have also enjoyed a very good working relationship with our private landowner cooperators. However, our hunters have also stated the one thing they would like to see is better quality cover on the Walk-In Areas, while landowners have expressed a desire to have a better payment structure. We feel the enhancements we initiated in 2004 helped address these issues.”
Under the 2008 Walk-In Area program guidelines, the department will pay landowners up to $1 per acre per year for access, plus a bonus payment of up to $5 per acre per year for permanent, undisturbed cover in the state’s prime pheasant hunting areas. Landowners can also receive an additional one-time bonus payment of up to $1 per acre for each hunting season remaining on their CRP contract if they enroll their CRP land as Walk-In Areas for the duration of the CRP contract.
Land not containing permanent, undisturbed cover can be enrolled for up to $1 per acre per year anywhere in the state as long as it has sufficient habitat to offer an opportunity to harvest game.
“Our Walk-In Area program comes at considerable cost each year,” Smith noted. “Last year, we paid landowners approximately $2 million for Walk-In Area leases. However, this public hunting opportunity is such an important part of our vision for the future of hunting in South Dakota that we feel the money was well spent. Our public involvement work indicates the public will be very supportive of this expense as long as the trade-off is good public hunting opportunity."
Large tracts of land in western South Dakota will still be sought for leasing to accommodate big game hunters and grouse hunters.
Smith said that CRP land would continue to be an important emphasis within the Walk-In Area program. “There are 1.2 million acres of CRP in South Dakota that meet many habitat needs for wildlife and provide good hunting opportunity,” Smith said. “In addition, we are looking for any areas that provide us with good hunting opportunity.”
Walk-In Area enrollment for the 2008 hunting season runs from now until June 1. Landowners interested in information and possible enrollment in the Walk-In Area Program should contact their local conservation officer well before the June 1 deadline. Program information may also be obtained from GFP offices or the GFP Web site at www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/PrivateLands/HuntingAccess.htm.
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Landowners Sought for New Hunting Access Program in 2008
PIERRE, S.D. – The S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department is seeking landowners who are interested in joining a new big game hunting access program in 2008--the Controlled Hunter Access Program.
CHAP is a cooperative effort between private landowners, hunters and Game, Fish and Parks to open up more private land to public big game hunting. Landowners who enroll their land in CHAP will have more control over hunter activities on their land, including controlling the amount of hunter use at a given time, setting special provisions for uses and placing restrictions on big game species allowed to be harvested and game retrieval. Payments to landowner will be based on actual hunter use, not on acres enrolled as is done in the Walk-In Area program.
“We have made significant strides in the Walk-In Area program over the past 20 years resulting in a Walk-In Area enrollment of over 1 million acres” said Bill Smith, senior wildlife biologist for Game, Fish and Parks. “We also know there are landowners interested in providing big game hunting access but want some method to control the number of hunters on their land at a given time. We created CHAP to fill that need.”
To qualify for CHAP, landowners must be legally able, either through ownership or rental agreement that includes hunting privileges, to enroll the offered land in CHAP. The landowner will receive a payment of $6 per hunter day plus possible bonuses for each hunter day of use for enrolling in the program if they allow all species of wildlife to be hunted or have their land open to hunt the entire season of the allowed game. Landowners enrolling 1,000 acres or more will receive an additional flat bonus rate of $250.
Hunters who access land enrolled in CHAP are required to check in with the landowner or at a self-serve check-in box to obtain a permission slip. When all the permission slips are gone for a particular date, no additional hunters will be allowed.
“CHAP is not designed to replace our existing Walk-In Area program,” Smith noted. “It is our hope to provide a variety of options for landowners to help them determine what best fits for their land management goals.”
The CHAP enrollment period for the 2008 hunting season is open and runs until June 13. Landowners interested in information and possible enrollment in CHAP should contact their local conservation officer well before the June 13 deadline. CHAP locations for the 2008 hunting season will be printed in the 2008 Hunting Atlas.
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Brown Trout to be Stocked Below Fort Randall Dam
PIERRE, S.D.--The S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department plans to stock brown trout below Fort Randall Dam. Approximately 7,500 brown trout are scheduled to be released March 25, weather permitting, in the boat basin below Fort Randall Dam.
“We normally stock these fish sporadically over a two or three week period, but due to recent reconstruction of our coldwater fish production facilities, brown trout for this year’s stocking were not reared in South Dakota” said Jason Sorensen, fisheries biologist in Chamberlain. This year’s trout were reared at Big Springs State Fish Hatchery near Lewistown, Mont., through a cooperative effort between S.D. Game, Fish and Parks and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “Due to the logistics of transporting trout from Montana and fish health concerns at our hatchery facilities, there will be one stocking this year,” Sorenson said. The trout have been inspected for disease and meet all Game, Fish and Parks fish importation rules and policies.
“Brown trout are stocked each spring below Fort Randall Dam. The trout are approximately 9 inches in length and bite readily, providing an excellent angling opportunity for kids of all ages as well as adults,” Sorensen said. Angling opportunities are available for both boat and shore anglers as ample shoreline access exists immediately below Fort Randall Dam.
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Fishing Tournament, Special Event Planning Starts with GFP Application
PIERRE, S.D.—Soon posters will be going up in many South Dakota communities announcing the dates for local fishing tournaments. The S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department reminds tournament organizers that planning for their event should start with filling out the proper GFP paperwork.
Fishing tournament and special event applications must be submitted no later than 30 days before the event is scheduled to occur. “This 30-day window allows the department to collect all of the required signatures and to handle any special requirements or conditions like the need for proof of insurance or a special waiver,” according to GFP Special Events Permits Coordinator Jeanne Uecker.
The 2008 application includes important information for tournament organizers like the dates during the year when fishing tournaments aren’t allowed to be held as well as the dates when salmon and walleye catch and release tournaments are restricted.
Organizers are reminded that applications are needed for events involving 20 or more boats or 50 or more participants. Events in which the participants do not use boats still need to fill out an application if the number of people involved exceeds 50.
Completing the event paperwork sooner rather than later helps everyone involved avoid confusion. “With 30 days advance notice, we can make sure that there is not already another event planned for the same area at the same time,” Uecker said.
Fishing tournament and special event applications may be found on the GFP Web site at http://www.sdgfp.info/Publications/SpecEventFishTournApplForm.pdf or they can be obtained from a conservation officer.
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