Despite opposition from South Dakota Sportsmen’s groups the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee yesterday passed out a measure expanding by one, Spink County, the number of counties that could issue additional non-resident waterfowl licenses. Chris Hesla with the South Dakota Wildlife Federation says his group has been fighting the expansion of non-resident licensing since 1945 and that this it’s the reason his group was formed in the first place. He said that granting more non-resident waterfowl licenses will lead to more commercialized hunting in South Dakota, pushing out resident hunters. Hesla says the legislature needs to decide if they or the Game, Fish and Parks Commission are going to make these decisions
However, proponents including Senator Brock Greenfield of Clark, expressed concerns with the decreasing numbers of instate hunters in recent years
Greenfield reminded the committee that South Dakota is the only state that has a limited non-resident waterfowl lottery and that last year the numbers of resident licenses sold in some areas where the licensing was expanded fell grossly short of what actually were sold. The committee voted 6-2 in favor sending Senate Bill 123 to the floor.
(KXLG)