Gov. Daugaard Calls Special Session To Address Non-Meandered Waters For Monday, June 12

Pat Powers

Gov. Daugaard Calls Special Session To Address Non-Meandered Waters For Monday, June 12

PIERRE, S.D. – Gov. Dennis Daugaard has called a special legislative session to consider legislation relating to public recreational use of non-meandered waters overlying private property.

After consulting with legislative leaders from both political parties, the Governor is calling the special session for Monday, June 12, 2017, at 10 a.m. CDT, at the State Capitol in Pierre.

“The interim legislative committee considered hours of testimony and struck a good compromise that balanced the rights of landowners with the ability for sportsmen to use public waters for recreation,” said the Governor. “I hope the Legislature can act quickly to resolve this long-standing issue.”

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4 thoughts on “Gov. Daugaard Calls Special Session To Address Non-Meandered Waters For Monday, June 12”

  1. It is high time we stop kicking this issue down the road and finally man up with a statutory fix. Below is something I posted on the SDWF’s FB page yesterday.

    10 years ago few of us outside of Day County had ever heard the term Non-Meandered. Today it is hotter at coffee tables all over South Dakota than Russian hacking is. Where we (The Legislature) failed miserably was to not get at least a one page statute into law seven years ago and continued making it better every year. Being behind the 8 Ball and forcing something anything to appease the courts is never a good place to be. That said everyone needs to take a step back from the loudspeaker and finally allow the Legislature to put in statute a law guiding the recreation over and in non-M water. Next session bring amendments to make it better or have the GF&P set rules into play doing so.
    Legislators are not going to pass something which is guaranteed to hurt a large number of people and no law will ever be perfect. Let this take shape so at least the letter of the law is not being curtailed by a Supreme Court judgement. We all lose if something isn’t done now.
    Besides opening up many great bodies of water to public fishing we all may be pleasantly surprised by how many non-M landowners keep the water open for recreation once this is settled.

  3. Horribly written bill. Sportsmen and women were shut out of the process. Once again big money wins.

  4. Even though today is actually Gov DD’s birthday the House & Senate should sing Happy Birthday to him in their first joint session tomorrow.

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