South Dakota Bounty coming to an end

I got this in an Email from the GFP today.

"Nest Predator Bounty Program Closes August 12
On August 12, the Nest Predator Bounty Program will close after receiving 50,000 nest predator tails from nearly 3,000 participants.
With Governor Noem being committed to continuing South Dakota’s outdoor heritage, she created the Second Century Initiative early in 2019. The Nest Predator Bounty Program launched on April 1, 2019, as part of this initiative to help pheasants and ducks increase nesting success. Since then, the program has focused on introducing people to trapping as well as reducing localized populations of nest predators.
“I want to sincerely thank Governor Noem for taking the initiative to develop a program that encouraged individuals and families to get outside while allowing the department to implement it,” said Game, Fish and Parks’ Secretary, Kelly Hepler. “The success of this program is directly tied to the stories we have received from the families who were inspired to start trapping for the first time. One Huron dad told us that this was one of the first times he and his son were able to connect through an activity other than video games. And a grandma told us that this is a way she can spend time outside with her grandkids.”
The bulk of submissions came from raccoon tails at 37,720 followed by the submission of 5,529 skunk tails. The top counties that participated in the program have included: Minnehaha, Beadle, Yankton, Grant, Brookings, Turner, Kingsbury, Clark, Roberts and Lake counties.
“I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm that has come with the program to sustain our state’s outdoor trapping heritage,” said Hepler. “Participants have not only been successful at removing large numbers of nest predators which will help nesting birds in their local areas, but more importantly, they have had fun and experienced our outdoor resources in a way they might not have ever known.”

Half million dollars this state didnt have. Glad its over for this year. Havent seen much for birds thus far.

Sounds like a lot of road kills to me. Big waste of public funds.

Jarhead

It was nice to see all the kids being brought in by parents and grandparents looking for traps. I know some of you apparently could give 2 squirts that it may have introduced kids to trapping, but I think it was nice to see. Carma will eventually get the thieves that were turning in road kill.

I run I-90 a lot doing transports, not much tail taking on the interstate and I have to say the roadkill's seem way down in many places. Numbers seem to be down on about every critter yotes are way quite this summer, coons and skunks are way down too.

Birds will be up this year I had about 25 in the yard the other day when I let the dog out in the morning. Seeing a good amount of young birds with the wet summer hay and crops not getting cut much leaving a lot of cover when they were younger.

With this cover the cows are even hard to see in a fresh stand of grass the birds will be hard to see unless they are on the roads.

"Feel good" story as I read it. This effort will have no significant effect on ground nesting bird success. The vast majority were raccoons and skunks. Do these two species raid nests? Yes, when they stumble upon them. A much bigger threat is coyotes and fox. They actually seek out nests, and work in pairs. One distracts the adult bird so that the other can raid the nest unobstructed. I have seen this in person.

Like I said the timing could not be any better with the numbers down and yotes will get pressured with what they are worth, will they all come back sure they will they always do that's the great thing about the renewable resource cycle.

Not a bounty fan but the timing is to our advantage this year now we need a mild winter and the birds will bounce back quickly!

I had a few tails to turn in, was planning to do it this week anyway and then looked at the "tail tracker" on Weds and almost wondered if I'd be too late this morning. A fairly efficient system; dump your bag into a "fire grate" steel pit where the turned in tails are obviously hit with a little spray paint. The technician scanned my digital code off of my paper combo hunting license (didn't actually need a furbearer's stamp to do it), enters what I brought in into his ipad, I sign the legal statement with my finger, and I away I went. I checked my home e-mail about 2 hours later and I had a receipt of what I had brought in and when I should expect payment. As I was walking out of the "Outdoor Campus" there was a dad (maybe g-dad) and a youngster (probably less than 10) walking in with a bag much larger than mine. I don't think I would have waited quite so long with my entire haul but it appears they got in under the wire. I wished them luck as I walked by.

About a 1,000 tails left to go before the quota is topped out, nearly 3,000 tails turned in the last 3 days. The kill ratio right now is about 80% coon, 11.4% skunk, 6.9% possum, and 1.8% red fox/badger. Probably some of the most complete harvest (ok, warm season) data ever gathered in this state (no sampling involved). The inmates were on over-drive making live traps (saw a small trailer full of them this morning). We'll see if it happens next year...

https://sdgfp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/e7bbbd6fa93b48c6a31985aa7c57c5ff

The cages that were handed out here were from tru-catch out Belle Fourche way, they make a nice trap!

Yeah, they did look a bit different from the several prison industries ones I've "seen". I still can't believe word got around that quick back in March and 5,000 live traps were signed up for in one day!!

I stand corrected, about 4,000 tails turned in this past Weds through Friday. Might have to go do some toe-to-toe with the antis on Gov Noem's facebook page, haven't done that since April. Law Dog have you sparred with them this summer or did that mob move on to some other "war crime"...?

Free can move mountains.

I went there a few weeks ago the GFP thing and it seems the Anti's went on to other things they know nothing about!

Might be popular with the public, but bounties do not work! Shows how little your Governor knows about wildlife Biology.Game, Fish, and Parks should be ashamed to allow this.

I dont think GFP had much say in it.

My daughter was one of the kids on Facebook that got the anti's all fired up. She had a blast checking her traps and got her interested in trapping. I think this program was great for that aspect of it. We put out a few traps for a couple weeks and turned in 11 tails. $110 is a lot of money for an 8 year old kid. She opened her very own savings account with that money and is saving up for something special. It is money she earned "all on her own" and was very proud of that.
The first week of June we had one live trap set in our backyard. One morning I looked out the window and noticed the door was down. I sent her out to see what was in her trap. She came running back to the house and said there is a skunk in there! By this time we had already turned in all the tails and I told her we are not going to turn in one more. So she asked if we could skin it out. Of course a summer pelt has no value, we skinned it anyways. Then we tanned the hide and she has it hanging in her room and is excited to show her friends. She is sure excited to go set traps this fall. I am certain we will be trying our had at making some hats and gloves with some of her fur this winter.

Yep it was more like a executive order. I'll take that $590.00 if they want to pay it out, $10 average on Skunks, coons and grinners worked for me! LOL

Congratulations to you and your daughter, and well done!

Outstandingly cool!! You're a good dad. The antis can choke on their own despair. Free people are the bedrock of this country!! John 8:31-32

I'm glad the program got some kids interested in trapping, now lets hope they go on to learn how to skin, handle and market fur.

That is kind of an absolute. If bounties are high enough and they last long enough they certainly can have a biological impact. Not saying the numbers involved here will though.

Not only is it absolute, it is absolutely WRONG! Bounties have been established for many purposes, in this case to REDUCE nest predation and it must be obvious to the most casual observer that removing 50,000 potential nest predators during the nesting season will have reduced nest predation. Whether that reduction will translate into increased pheasant population is a different question.

If we have a good winter and less snow the birds will do well, if they can't get the hay and crops cut in places with the ground being soaked we will have a lot of cover. Predators are down in central SD so pounding them a little more should slow them down for a few years but sure they will come back. Lots of factors going on this year so this will just compliment the bounty program maybe.

Driving across s.d. yesterday seen coons and skunks dead on road and still had there tails. So was was amazed that someone hadn't cut them off. And will have to say road kill seems to be down from years past . Seen 2 dead skunks on road today by yankton.

Because most people in this state are actually honest. If I sign an affidavit saying I took the tails within the program's regs (no road kill allowed), then if I'm lying I'm actually breaking the law and being morally wrong. No road kill is a fairly easy one to follow. I hope they've caught a few guys trying to turn in mostly road kill tails and hit them with a nice fine for each one they can. Major violators should at least lose their hunting and trapping privileges for a year, the same as taking a deer out of season.

cohunt- did you do any bounty trapping?

Law Dog- Did you have any big damage from that last storm that walloped Burke? It looked like your county was painted fiery red when that sucker was moving south...

We did not participate in the program for a variety of reasons. Our advanced ages certainly had a bit to do with those decisions.

Took them a few days to figure out that was a tornado in Burke. We just got more rain here the most I have seen in the last 40 years. Lawn is like the edge of a swamp soppy when you walk on it, not sure if they will be able to hay it as the lake is over the high water mark now.

Law Dog- you'll be shooting northern mallards from your back yard if they actually ever get down and stay in the bottom third of the state for more than a day or so. I miss those 2 weeks before Thanksgiving when we used to have the migration hanging around here. Its staying too nice in eastern North Dakota and too much corn up there now. The northern ducks maybe get as far south as US-14 nowadays (if we're lucky) and blow through here in a day. Same things with the snows. Maybe it will be different this year...

Coyotes and fox teaming up and raiding nests lol couldn't resist

Do raccoons and skunks raid nests? You have to be kidding.

And why would a coyote or fox distract an adult bird rather than just kill it if it were attempting to "obstruct" the nest raid?

Excellent!!!! A long term success story in the making!

if trappers could get 2 to 3 times more for their furs during harvest season than the bounty season how many would participate would there be a need for the bounty season if furs was worth more than they are now

Unfortunately trapping is not a useful management tool in most parts of the country due to low incentive to harvest furbearers. In the future it will be government paying the bill and private individuals on thier land.

54,482 tails as of 6:20 PM turned in.

So, is the GFP going to have to borrow some emergency money to handle the extra $50,000 that they didn't expect to pay given that they said program closes at 5 pm Monday and they were still about a 1,000 tails short Friday evening (5,100 tails got turn in today)? Or is everyone checked in over the planned 49,990 tails just out of luck...?

Heard there was 37k coon turned in, my guess is that’s twice as many as harvested during the fur season. I have been saying for a while that coon need to be around $10 on the carcass and harvest would quickly max out.

$50k is nothing to a state budget. I'd assume SD will hold up its end just like most SD trappers held to the regs.

Did I not state that raccoons and skunks raid nests? Yes I did. My point is, they are not the most efficient at it compared to fox and coyotes (which were taken in scant numbers under this bounty program).
Spend enough time in the field engaged with the protection of ground nesting birds from mammal depredation, and you will soon enough witness the relentless instincts of the parent bird/birds to protect their nests. They don't win the battle of protecting their clutch very often, but it is not from lack of effort.

Coyotes were not included in this bounty, we would the state devalue a much higher fur value for a $10 bounty. South Dakota doesn't have many reddies anymore so not surprised at the small number of those caught. I suspect the number of guys that used say a traditional dirt hole with a bedded 1/12 or so were few. Why waste the extra effort when coon, skunks, and possum can be caught in cage traps (state gave a lot away), dps, or coni boxes...?

Yeah, you're probably right but South Dakota's state budget is about 37.1 billion smaller than Wisconsin's (1.6 billion vs 38.7 billion). Size does matter...

I'm surprised a higher percentage of badger weren't taken.

We trapped over 60 critters last 2 years within 2 miles of house. Tons more quail and rabbits. Even had 2 squirrels in yard take up residence. Been same house over 20 years.

Rally when you go to the individual county you see their badger total some of them are quite high. they do not appear in the pie charts.

Like PC said mostly cages being used I was surprised the fox numbers were that high really. A lot of new trappers might be the reason cages are popular with the rain we had and the grass being so tall the fall type trapping would be hard. My guess is a few Counties that have fox did some denning most likely.

Had to double check but you're spot on.

Thank you for the info about coyotes not being included in the program. If the coyotes aren't targeted by this program, it makes an even weaker case for this program to have an impact on protecting ground nesting birds.
While some might recognize this fact and then propose to include coyotes into the program at a higher dollar value to encourage coyote trappers to pursue trapping unprime coyotes, you are still left with a bounty program which has never worked in the history of the planet.

its all about the revenue if it dosent create more birds and sell more hunting licenses draw more out of staters to help fund the program it will either change or be done away with

Coyotes get a ton of pressure here about every farmer has a rifle in their truck/tractors, a lot of guys call them, deer season keeps them moving and we have State trappers and private ones so they get a workout bounty or not. LOL