Legislative Action

LEGISLATIVE ALERT President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre February 18, 2020 SB 150, the bill to significantly increase nonresident waterfowl hunting opportunity was approved in Committee this am.  That sucked.  But – the good news – you are making a difference. ...

LEGISLATIVE ALERT President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre February 13, 2020 SB 150, the bill to significantly increase nonresident waterfowl hunting opportunity has been scheduled for committee action.  It will be heard in the Senate Agriculture and Natural...

LEGISLATIVE ALERT President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre February 5, 2020 The bill to increase nonresident waterfowl hunting opportunity has been introduced.  It is SB 150.  The bill is unchanged from the bill I discussed with you on Jan. 28th.  As of today it...

LEGISLATIVE ALERT President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre January 28, 2020 It didn’t take long for this issue to change.  We had a conference call on Monday aft. with Sec. Hepler and some of his staff about their ideas for nonresident licensing legislation.  We...

LEGISLATIVE ALERT - UPDATE President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre January 27, 2020 Two issues for update: I worked with Zach Hunke and Chris Hesla (Zach is the current President of the SD Wildlife Federation and Chris is their Ex. Director) to develop a draft...

LEGISLATIVE ALERT President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre January 17, 2020 I met today with the attorneys representing Flatland Flyway, Chris Hesla and Zach Hunke with the SD Wildlife Federation, Kelly Hepler and two of Kelly’s staff.  I also invited local SDWA...

LEGISLATIVE ALERT President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre January 2020 I failed to mention in my recent note that I again registered as a lobbyist for the SD Waterfowl Association for the 2020 SD Legislative Session.  I plan to monitor bills in the session as they...

LEGISLATIVE ALERT – hopefully final George Vandel, Pierre Tuesday, February 12, 2019 HB 1152 – the “outfitter” bill is dead for this year.  It was amended to include the language I provided earlier then tabled by the Committee this morning.  GFP may try to work on...

President’s message – George Vandel, Pierre Monday, February 11, 2019 It appears now that HB 1152 – the “outfitter” bill is struggling.  Rumors are that the sponsors are attempting to change the bill to make it more inclusive and to require regulation of all hunting...

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