Changes proposed to pheasant season

Several changes to the state’s pheasant season are being proposed.

The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks accepted the proposals during its regular monthly meeting held Thursday and Friday via conference and video livestream.

Two of the major changes include extending the season’s end date to either Jan. 15 or 31 and increasing the daily bag limit from three to four from Dec. 1 to the end of the season.

The proposals can be reviewed for 60 days and will be up for public commentary in future meetings. They could be finalized later this year, with the season extension potentially going into during the upcoming season.

The increased bag limit will not start until next season. Another proposal is to modify shooting hours to begin at 10 a.m. all season.

That could also be changed for this upcoming fall season.

In June, the GF&P commission agreed to discontinue South Dakota’s roadside brood survey that’s that conducted each year since 1949. Several letters of public input were submitted to the commission prior to the July meeting stating disagreement with the decision.

The decision to discontinue the state’s annual brood count was made after GF&P Secretary Kelly Hepler explained in June the survey does not impact the season structure or harvest limits.