Quick trip report from 1st SD trip!

C

carpfisher

New member
Camped in Farm Island State Park, Pierre in one of the cabins. Excellent digs. Hunted 99% Public land: WIA, FPNGL, Game Production Areas. We were never skunked in 6 days of hunting. Harvest Pheasant, Sharptail, and Prarie Chicken. Weather was perfect, although a bit windy 1 day ( 35 mph steady.) After reading some of the posts on this forum about getting to fields early and all, we saw very few other hunting parties. Almost none in the FPNGL and never had a problem getting on a piece of public land.
We need to understand the WIA program better. Seems like some of the land listed and marked as WIA is barely adequate to support insect life, let alone game animals. We understand everything isn't necessarily for birds but jez, some of that stuff was grazed to the nubs of grass. How much do the farmers get paid to be in the program? Seems like they are ripping off the state. All in All, fantastic and we'll be back next year.
 
They get paid very little actually. It is paid as follows:

SDGFP, Wildlife Division, Private Lands Hunting Access Programs
Programs provide public hunting access on private land in return for a lease payment
from SDGFP
State statutes (SDCL 20-9-12 through SDCL 20-9-18) provide landowners who enroll in
these programs with immunity from normal, non-negligent, or intentional liability.
Walk-In Area Program (WIA)
• Eastern SD + Lyman, Gregory, & Tripp Counties
o $1/acre - base access payment
o $5/acre - habitat bonus payment for undisturbed habitat (CRP, wetlands,
woody cover, grassland, abandoned farm sites that are not hayed or grazed
that year)
o CRP Retention bonus – One time bonus payment
$1/ac./year remaining in a CRP contract and enrolled in the WIA
Must be paid back in full if multiyear contract is cancelled early
• Western SD
o Most WIAs base access payments range from $0.30 – 1.00/acre
Payment depends on size, habitat, and potential hunter use
o If land is located in Bennett, Corson, Dewey, Haakon, Jones, Mellette,
Perkins, Stanley, or Zeibach county and offers permanent undisturbed habitat
and good pheasant hunting opportunity, payment may be the same as
Eastern SD.
• Restrictions can be placed on WIA(ex. Delayed Opening Date, No Spring Hunting, No
Rifle)
• Deadline to sign-up is May 1st.
• Payment is issued in January or February following fall hunting season.
 
I forgot to add a note about Barbed Wire.
Sam got into a bunch of some in a shelter belt we were hunting. He went in after a bird and came out with blood all over his front half.:eek: Apparently he just knicked the vein the vet's use in his left forleg. After the split seccond of panic and WTF to see the gusher, I tackled him and applied direct pressure. I just started carrying a dog first aid kit this year so I shrugged off the Camelback with the kit in the accessory pocket, smeared a blob of EMT Gel on it, 4x4 bandages and wrapped it with cling tape. We hauled him to the Oahe Vet Clinic in Pierre (40 minutes away). By the time I got there, the bleeding had stopped and we discoverd he also tore up an ear. Dr. Heather Carlise took him right in. Sam was stichjed up and we were on our way in 30 minutes. Dr. said no problem so we hunted the next day. It was his best day. Seems like he slowed down and really paid attention to the job at hand. I am sold on EMT gel and will never hunt with out a Dog/people first aid kit.
 
I was out in Presho the first week, and came across some of the walki-in areas that we hunted last year that were very successful, and they were hayed shorter than my front lawn. We were talking to a game warden there (very friendly by the way!) and we asked him about those fields and he said that they had just come out of CRP, so the landowner was able to hay them. Saw lots of areas like that,, unfortunately there was NO cover on those areas. But overall, a good hunt for the 3 of us and our 3 dogs!
 
Wirehairs said:
They get paid very little actually. It is paid as follows:

SDGFP, Wildlife Division, Private Lands Hunting Access Programs
Programs provide public hunting access on private land in return for a lease payment
from SDGFP
State statutes (SDCL 20-9-12 through SDCL 20-9-18) provide landowners who enroll in
these programs with immunity from normal, non-negligent, or intentional liability.
Walk-In Area Program (WIA)
• Eastern SD + Lyman, Gregory, & Tripp Counties
o $1/acre - base access payment
o $5/acre - habitat bonus payment for undisturbed habitat (CRP, wetlands,
woody cover, grassland, abandoned farm sites that are not hayed or grazed
that year)
o CRP Retention bonus – One time bonus payment
$1/ac./year remaining in a CRP contract and enrolled in the WIA
Must be paid back in full if multiyear contract is cancelled early
• Western SD
o Most WIAs base access payments range from $0.30 – 1.00/acre
Payment depends on size, habitat, and potential hunter use
o If land is located in Bennett, Corson, Dewey, Haakon, Jones, Mellette,
Perkins, Stanley, or Zeibach county and offers permanent undisturbed habitat
and good pheasant hunting opportunity, payment may be the same as
Eastern SD.
• Restrictions can be placed on WIA(ex. Delayed Opening Date, No Spring Hunting, No
Rifle)
• Deadline to sign-up is May 1st.
• Payment is issued in January or February following fall hunting season.
Click to expand...

God Bless those S.D. Landowners who enroll their property in WIA. It made for an awesome 2010 trip.:10sign:
 
While there are a few WIA's in the central/west central areas that have some decent cover, you could play golf all day on most WIA's and never loose a ball.................

In fact, some of the very large WIA's in the west/northwest are grazed to the dirt, but a local CO told me that not all of these actually receive payments. It would be great to have a WIA booklet showing only those acres actually having usable hunting cover for the game. Instead, the booklet has a "million" enrolled acres with most being worthless for hunting.
 
It would be great to have a WIA booklet showing only those acres actually having usable hunting cover for the game. Instead, the booklet has a "million" enrolled acres with most being worthless for hunting.[/QUOTE]

Amen to that Brother!.. We wasted too many hours and gallons of gas driving to places that looked good on the map, but sucked in real life. The WILMA system is nice but the satellite photos aren't current so they aren't much help.
 
Agree X 10. They need to do a better job identifying the type of land (grazed, crops, CRP, etc). So if they were to steal a page out of the North Dakota PLOTS book they could identify which land is actively being farmed for crops in a particular year by using yet another color or a different color border or so on.:cheers:
 
Just be thankful the farmers keep putting it into the walk in program. We could be paying the 300.00 dollars and up per day to hunt. Most of the walk ins I was at was pretty good not all but most.
 
The biggest complaint I hear from landowners who put land in the walk in program are guys leaving trash behind and people driving on the ground. If you use walk-ins remeber to be respectful and if you see some trash, even if it isn't your's please pick it up.
 
to the point said:
Just be thankful the farmers keep putting it into the walk in program. We could be paying the 300.00 dollars and up per day to hunt. Most of the walk ins I was at was pretty good not all but most.
Click to expand...

Yes Sir, very thankful for the farmers and their generosity.:thumbsup: Once they payscale was published, it obvious they are not in it for the money. I don't think its a Farmer issue, I think it the GFP issue. As NellieJunior pointed, ND has a system to identify if the land is being farmed, etc.
Another option would more up to date, real time, satellite photo system. Obviouslly, this is not SD is gonna foot the bill for. I did a google search to try and find an online site that provides this service and couldn't find anything. I suspect maybe its a National Defense thing. Who knows. I'm sure thew crew would pony up to pay for access to real time or even near real time to see what's happening on the land.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top