Parks et al versus SD Game, Fish water case

[Guest]

Does anyone know what's going on with the SD water case in the SD supreme court? For those who are not familiar, several parties near Webster have a suit against the state over the law which allows people to access private lakes if the lakes are accessible from public right of ways. I was told by a GF&P law agent in Watertown a few months ago that a decision was imminent on this case, but I never heard after that. Anyone know anything about this?

[ifishsd]

I thought the SD already passed a law that said you would be Trespassing if you crossed the old fence line.

I don't know how they can inforce that law. If I'm ice fishing or in a boat I'm above the farmers land. So if an airplane flies over the same land, isn't the airplane Trespassing?

[Guest]

ifishsd

What if your lure hits the bottom of the lake? Is that a trespass? What if you shoot a duck and your steel shot falls to the bottom of the lake? Are you littering that farmer's land? After all, the bottom of the lake still belongs to the farmer. Right?

[ifishsd]

The whole thing is crazy. A few bad apples ruin it for everyone.

This is like the Road hunting issue. They battle that thing every year.

[Rost]

I have not heard anything since last year either. This could be a very big problem for us if they can't come to an agreement. From what I understand, the landowners are upset because they are not being compensated for land that has been flooded.

Here is my thought. Why can't the state compensate them for this land just like they do with CRP? It would serve almost the exact same purpose. CRP is designed to take acres of crop land out of production in order to stablize grain prices. Along with that, it also provides wildlife with
awesome habitat. Well, this flooded land is unable to be farmed, and it provides habitat for our fish.

Honestly, if this goes through and we get kicked off these waters... We're screwed! Half the lakes in South Dakota are flooded. Thompson, Waubay Area, 81 Ponds, Sinai etc..

I grew up on a farm, I know how it is. But some how this has got to be ironed out.