Statewide Deer and Elk Carcass Disposal Rules Change

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission (GFP) changed the way deer and elk hunters must dispose of carcass remains for the management of chronic wasting disease (CWD).

All hunters transporting a deer or elk from the county of harvest, must dispose of all carcass remains in a garbage container or at a permitted landfill. This applies statewide regardless of CWD status in the respective county. For taxidermists and game processors, all carcass remains need to be disposed of in the same way regardless of harvest location.

“This is a big change for hunters ,” said GFP Terrestrial Section Chief, John Kanta. “We will be working hard to get the word out and to make sure our hunters know why this important.”

“We all need to do our part to protect our deer and elk herds and make sure that carcasses are disposed of properly.”

GFP Commission Creates Disabled Veterans Deer and Pheasant Hunting Seasons

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission (GFP) created an avenue for nonprofit organizations to apply for deer licenses for disabled veterans and purple heart recipients.

Nonprofit organizations can now obtain up to 10 any deer licenses that would be valid on private lands only.

Sponsoring nonprofit organizations will be required to complete and submit an application to the Department stating the name, address, and phone number of the sponsoring organization; the requested date of the season; the location of the hunt; and the name of any landowner providing private land access for the hunt.

The commission also modified the season dates for disabled veterans to pheasant hunt. The new rules detail the process for nonprofits to offer pheasant hunts for qualifying veterans, beginning Sept. 1 and running through the end of the regular pheasant hunting season.

GFP Commission Makes Changes to The Apprentice, Youth and Mentored Deer Hunting Seasons

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Commission simplified Youth and Apprentice deer licenses at their May meeting.

The commission laid out the following parameters:

Any resident or nonresident hunter under the age of 18 is eligible to purchase a Youth license.
Any resident hunter over the age of 18 who has not had a deer license in the past 10 years would qualify for an Apprentice license.
Apprentice license holders will no longer be required to have adult accompaniment.

“Anytime we can make the rules cleaner and simpler for outdoor families and youth hunters, that’s a good thing,” GFP Secretary Kevin Robling said.

“Every year, parents had questions on who qualified for what license and our team worked together to remove those frustrations. Getting outside to recreate in our awesome state should be easy. My team and I, while working in partnership with our Commission, are committed to continuously making it easy to do business with us.””

In addition, the commission reduced the harvest of antlerless mule deer in select units for these seasons.

The change creates two units, Unit MHD-03/YOD-03/APD-03 (shaded) and Unit MHD-13/YOD-13/APD-13 (white) for mentored, youth, and apprentice licenses.

Mentored, Youth, and Apprentice hunters can obtain either a single tag “any antlerless deer” license for Unit MHD-03/YOD-03/APD-03 or a single tag “antlerless whitetail deer” license for Unit MHD-13/YOD-13/APD-13.

The establishment of these units and license types will reduce harvest of antlerless mule deer in select hunting units to increase mule deer population numbers, while maintaining current apprentice, youth, and mentored deer harvest and desired growth rates in other hunting units.

The Mentored, Youth, and Apprentice Hunter Deer Seasons will be:

Sept. 11, 2021 – Jan. 1, 2022
Sept 10, 2022 – Jan. 1, 2023

GFP Commission Increases West River Deer Licenses; Decrease to Black Hills and Custer State Park Licenses

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Commission made changes to the licenses available for the West River and Black Hills Deer Hunting Seasons at their May meeting.

The commission increased the number of licenses available for the 2021 and 2022 West River Deer Hunting Seasons.

The West River season will have: 11,453 single tag, 8,970 double tag, and 864 triple tag resident licenses and 920 single tag, 718 double tag and 64 triple tag licenses available for nonresidents.

The West River Deer Season will be:

November 13-28, 2021 (All units excluding Gregory County):
November 6-9 and November 22-28, 2021 (Unit 30A-Gregory County):
November 13-28, 2021 (Unit 30B-Gregory County):
December 11-19, 2021 Antlerless deer tags only.

The commission decreased the number of “any whitetail” licenses to 3,000 for residents and 240 for nonresidents for the Black Hills Deer Hunting Season. Additionally, the number of “antlerless whitetail” licenses decreased to 300 resident and 24 nonresident licenses.

Black Hills “any deer” licenses will be 200 for resident and 16 for nonresidents.

The Black Hills Deer Hunting Season is Nov. 1-30.

The Commission also set 25 “any whitetail” and 50 “antlerless whitetail” licenses for the Custer State Park Deer Hunting Season.

GFP Commission Sets Muzzleloader, Refuge Deer Seasons; Decreases East River Deer Licenses

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Commission set the Muzzleloader Deer and East River Deer Hunting Seasons at their May meeting.

The commission changed the area where “antlerless whitetail” licenses are valid during the muzzleloader season

Season dates for the muzzleloader seasons are:

December 1, 2021 – January 1, 2022
December 1, 2022 – January 1, 2023

The commission decreased available licenses for the East River Deer Hunting Season.

The proposal calls for 24,940 single tag and 1,300 double tag licenses for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

The East River Deer Hunting Seasons will be:

November 20 – December 5, 2021
December 11-19, 2021 – for antlerless deer tags only

The commission set seasons for three National Wildlife Refuges.

Sand Lake NWR

November 13-17, November 18-22, November 23-28, November 29 – December 5, December 6-12, and December 13-21 (unfilled antlerless licenses only)

Lacreek NWR

October 20-26 and November 24-30

Waubay NWR (Including the Waubay State Game Bird Refuge)

November 13-21 and November 27 – December 5

License numbers available for each refuge will be:

Sand Lake NWR

Resident: 80 “any deer” and 25 “antlerless whitetail deer” licenses
Nonresident: 8 “any deer” and 2 “antlerless whitetail deer” licenses

Lacreek NWR

Residents: 20 “any deer” licenses
Nonresidents: 2 “any deer” licenses

Waubay NWR

Residents: 20 “any deer” licenses
Nonresidents: 2 “any deer” licenses

Commission Finalizes Grouse and Pheasant Hunting Seasons

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Commission changed the grouse hunting season on the Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge. Grouse season on Lacreek will begin the third Saturday in September, extending that season by a month.

The Commission amended their proposal to keep the Prairie Grouse Hunting Season closing the first Sunday of January.

The grouse hunting season for 2021 will be Sept. 18, 2021 – Jan. 2, 2022.

The commission changed the closing dates of the pheasant seasons on the Renzienhausen Game Production Area and the Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge to align with the statewide season’s closing date of January 31.

Dates for those seasons will be:

Renzienhausen GPA – Dec. 1, 2021 – Jan.31, 2022

Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge – Dec. 13, 2021 – Jan. 31, 2022.