Landowners
South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks values and appreciates the partnerships we have with landowners across the state. They help sustain our wildlife and promulgate our hunting heritage. South Dakota is 80 percent privately-owned and landowners play a significant role in providing wildlife habitat and outdoor opportunities like hunting and fishing.
The department offers a variety of programs available for private landowners to help create wildlife habitat, public hunting access, and reduce wildlife damage.
For more information about landowner programs, check out Habitat Pays. Habitat Pays is an effort to connect farmers and ranchers to the appropriate habitat resources and help them implement wildlife habitat where it makes the most sense to do so.
GFP employs 28 full-time Wildlife Damage Specialists (WDS) within its comprehensive Wildlife Damage Management Program. These staff members work directly with landowners and producers to reduce or alleviate wildlife damage such as: livestock losses, damage to stored-feed supplies and hay, damage to growing crops, and damage to personal property. They are trained to handle all types of wildlife damage, from coyotes to elk. Additionally, they conduct educational programs on sport trapping as a form of recreation and its importance in the management of furbearers. These programs can be presented in classrooms, meeting halls, summer camps, or other group meeting locations.
For more information on the below programs please contact your local Wildlife Damage Specialist.
Wildlife Damage Management Strategic Plan
In May 2019, the South Dakota Governor’s Office selected the Wildlife Management Institute to conduct an independent, 10-year historical review of South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks’ comprehensive Wildlife Damage Management (WDM) program. A copy of this report can be found here.
As a result of this review and staff discussions, Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) developed a strategic plan specific to the issues of wildlife damage management.
Within each of these goals are strategies and associated action items to identify specific tasks and expected completion dates. Much of the plan centers on increasing outreach and public input opportunities while measuring customer satisfaction. Other action items focus on training and mentoring staff, prioritizing staff time on specific duties and ongoing aggressive and preventative coyote removal to reduce livestock loss.
Prairie Dog Control
GFP will provide direct control of prairie dogs that have encroached onto private property from adjacent public lands. To be eligible, landowners must have a minimum of 10 acres of actual prairie dog colony and must be within one mile of the public land boundary. Tribal property or municipal properties are not considered public lands. If you have questions about prairie dog control from GFP, please call 605.394.2391. Register for the Prairie Control Program.
Additional Practices for Effective Prairie Dog Management
Beaver and Nuisance Animal Control
GFP will provide direct control of beavers for landowners or livestock producers that are experiencing damage caused by beavers. However, for problems with beaver damage inside city limits, people are encouraged to contact their local city officials for these types of requests. GFP only provides technical advice in these situations. For damage caused from raccoon, skunks, mink, and other nuisance wildlife species, GFP will provide technical assistance and may loan live traps to the public. Every situation is unique, and GFP staff working cooperatively with the affected landowner will determine the most effective approach. Contact your local Wildlife Damage Specialist for assistance.
Canada Goose Damage Assistance
GFP has several programs and services available to assist landowners and producers that experience damage to growing-crops from Canada geese. The most popular service is the installation of temporary electric fence around growing soybeans, which serves as an effective barrier to flightless geese during the summer months. GFP also offers up to $5,000 worth of cost-share assistance to producers to plant protective buffer-strips around growing crops, that protect the larger field from Canada goose damage. These buffer-strips may be wheat, alfalfa, or native grasses which create a visual barrier, so the geese are discouraged from entering the crop field. GFP may also provide up to $5,000 of cost-share assistance to construct woven wire fence along the edge of wetlands which prohibits geese access to the crop fields when the birds are flightless. GFP provides direct assistance when Canada geese are causing damage to growing crops or causing other issues on private lands; utilizing tools such as hazing, alternate feeding sites or egg addling. GFP may also authorize the affected landowner a permit which allows the landowner to lethally remove a small number of Canada geese that are causing crop damage. These permits serve as an effective form of hazing and can haze the remaining birds away from the immediate area. Allowing licensed hunters to harvest Canada geese during the August Management Take or Early Fall Canada Goose season is also very effective. Every situation is unique and GFP staff, working cooperatively with the affected landowner, will determine the most effective approach.
Deer Damage Assistance
GFP has several programs and services available to assist landowners and producers with deer damage. GFP offers up to $10,000 worth of cost-share assistance to construct permanent protective stackyards or can provide protective, portable panels or secure covers that protect stored livestock-feeds (e.g., hay, corn, silage, or other stored feed supplies) from deer damage during the winter months. These two programs are very popular and provide long-term solutions. GFP also provides direct assistance when deer are causing damage to growing crops, orchards, and other private property by utilizing hazing, temporary fencing, short-stop baiting, and in some situations, lethal control and/or depredation hunts. Every situation is unique and GFP staff, working cooperatively with the affected landowner will determine the most effective approach.
Elk Damage Assistance
GFP has several programs and services available to assist landowners and producers with elk damage. GFP offers up to $15,000 worth of cost-share assistance to construct permanent protective stackyards or can provide protective, portable panels to protect stored livestock-feeds (e.g., hay, corn, silage) from elk damage during the winter months. These two programs are very popular and provide long-term solutions. GFP also offers up to $15,000 worth of fencing materials and protective cable that when installed correctly can reduce damage to fences from elk crossing them. GFP offers up to $8,000 of cost-share assistance to landowners for growing-season food-plots where landowners have elk feeding on alfalfa fields or other growing crops. Landowners may also be eligible for up to $4,000 of cost-share assistance for hay land contracts. These contracts are for grasslands that are annually hayed by landowners, not grazed by livestock and have elk feeding upon these areas. GFP also provides direct assistance when elk are causing damage to growing crops or causing other issues on private lands by utilizing hazing, temporary fencing, short-stop baiting, and in some situations, lethal control and/or depredation hunts. Every situation is unique and GFP staff, working cooperatively with the affected landowner, will determine the most effective approach.
Predator Control
GFP provides direct control (e.g., trapping, snaring, calling, aerial hunting) of coyotes and red foxes to livestock producers or landowners that request assistance with livestock loss issues or livestock protection requests from predators. GFP operates an aggressive predator control program and works cooperatively with thousands of livestock producers and landowners across South Dakota, to resolve these requests for service. Every situation is unique and GFP staff working cooperatively with the affected landowner will determine the most effective approach. Contact your local Wildlife Damage Specialist for assistance.
Turkey Damage Assistance
GFP has several programs and services available to assist landowners and producers with damage caused from turkeys. The most popular service is the installation of protective netting which is installed on bales of oats, silage, or other small grain bales. GFP also provides direct assistance when turkeys are causing damage or other issues on private lands by utilizing hazing, temporary fencing, and alternate feeding sites and in some situations, lethal control and/or depredation hunts. Allowing licenses hunters, especially during the fall season, to harvest turkeys can be very effective to reduce local turkey populations. Every situation is unique, and GFP staff, working cooperatively with the affected landowner will determine the most effective approach.
One of GFP's primary challenges in wildlife management is working with agriculture producers to minimize the impact that wildlife has on their operations.
There are a number of methods for deterring wildlife from causing damage, including: create alternate feeding sites, temporary and permanent fencing, and hazing wildlife away from an area.
When other methods fail, GFP and private landowners may turn to hunters to help reduce the discourage wildlife causing damage.
South Dakota residents may sign up for a potential depredation hunt in December. If there is a need, a hunt may occur anytime from December through March.
Registration begins December 1, 8 a.m. CST