« Fee/Tax Increases in effect on July First | Main | First week of Session in the 2010 South Dakota House of Representatives »
Participation in the Canada Goose Working Group and Back to Pierre!
By Jason | January 13, 2010
I am excited to be back in Pierre and get to work on the issues that will affect our education system, social services, roads, and many other State services.
When we have been out of Session I do my best of keep up with local meetings of organizations and visit with constituents who have issues and concerns of how we can make government work better for the people.
The Game Fish and Parks asked me to serve on a Canada Goose Management Working Group. We all know of the issues with geese harvesting crops in the summer time; most soybeans are affected by the geese that are molting and often times can’t fly and just continue to feed on the crops. So far public input meetings have been held in Watertown, Webster, and Brookings. Our last meeting will be in Madison on Thursday, January 14th.
I have really enjoyed the dynamics of these meetings. Landowners, sportsmen, and officials with G,F&P sit down together at the tables and discuss the issues of dealing with our overpopulation of resident Giant Canada Geese. The term resident here means that the geese nest in South Dakota. Many possible tools have been presented by all parties involved such as increasing the bag limit on geese, extending the season, allow sub permitting of landowners to harvest problem geese on their land and planting buffer strips of small grain or grass near wetlands.
From my vantage point as an agriculture producer I know that when I have an issue on my farm or a problem, I like to be able to take care of the problem and move on. When dealing with these geese many farmers have to contact the G,F&P and request that they put up a temporary electric fence and hope that the geese will stay out of the soybeans. This could end up being a long time until any real solutions to the problem are reached on a farm. Under certain circumstances with oversight from the G,F&P I think that allowing sub permitting of landowners to harvest a few of the problem geese would be beneficial in restoring landowner confidence in the G,F&P.
Sportsmen and women want to do all they can to help and preserve the waterfowl opportunities we have in South Dakota. I hope many sportsmen will approach our landowners (especially in Northeastern South Dakota) and ask to assist them with their goose problems in the summertime. Lending a helping hand early, might just guarantee some prime hunting in the fall by forging a relationship. I challenge sportsmen organizations and farm groups to partner and spread the message to their members that we all need to work together and hopefully solve this issue locally on each of the farms.
Please let me know if you have any ideas because as a Working Group we will meet after the Madison meeting and formulate an official proposal to the Game, Fish and Parks Commission on how they can better manage our resident Canada Goose population. You can reach me at (605) 949-2204 or email me at rep.frerichs@state.sd.us.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.