By KW

Tom Huhnerkoch’s lawsuit did what he was hoping…This just in from Joe Kafka in the governor’s office in Pierre:

 Gov. Mike Rounds announced today that he has received a letter of resignation from Tim Kessler of Aberdeen, who first began serving on the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission in 1992.

“Tim has served with honor and has always come down in favor of what’s best for the state’s natural resources,” the governor said.  “Now I have the task of finding a replacement. I need another Tim Kessler, but they are far and few between.”

Kessler served under three governors. He left the Commission in January 2004, was appointed again in April 2005 and has served since then. Gov. Rounds most recently reappointed him to a new four-year term last year.

“When I asked him to stay on the Commission, he declined but I insisted because I knew he was the right man for the job,” the Governor said. “We owe Tim a huge debt of gratitude.”

Kessler said the time has come to finally leave the Commission, but it was a bittersweet decision.

“I have always concentrated on preservation and protection of our natural resources, advancement of outdoor recreational activities and balancing the concerns of all the groups interested in South Dakota’s natural resources,” he said.

Kessler, whose resignation is effective immediately, noted that a pending lawsuit challenges his eligibility to serve more than two terms on the Commission.

“I know your lawyer reviewed my eligibility when you insisted I accept the appointment, and believe we could win the lawsuit,” he said in his resignation letter to the governor. “Lawsuits take time and money, and rather than have this lawsuit become a distraction from the commission’s business, I want to step down and let you appoint another person in my place.”

An osprey, captured in digital form by photographer Toby Brusseau, flies off with a meal above Crow Creek at McNenny Fish Hatchery.

By KW

Sometimes it’s difficult to fish at Crow Creek.

The birds distract you.

Take the pair of osprey chirping and squealing above me the other day, as I worked a dry fly on a windy and challenging day on the creek.

It takes focus to fish in conditions like that. But it’s hard to focus on the water and cast when the sky and trees and bushes are busy with birds.

The osprey pair was especially eye-catching, as they dipped and turned and dove individually in the wind. I wasn’t lucky enough to see them score on a fish, as Toby did. But their presence inspired.

So did the sights and songs of finch, sparrow (the real native kind) and  warbler.

Birds always disrupt my fishing at Crow Creek, in a delightful way.

That’s only fair. Because, late this fall when I’m set up near my duck decoys on the creek near the hatchery, I’ll frequently take a break from calling and watching for greenheads  to creep  through the cattails and along the cut banks and spy on  brown trout.

The fish will disturb my bird hunting.

Tit for tat, by Mother Nature.

McEnroe’s first rufous-sided towhee in full frolic, while keeping an eye out for Caster Don and his all-weather mower.

By KW

It’s a new one for Steve McEnroe and his life list of birds.

The towhee was a treat for the former Journal photo chief, as it is for Mary and me each summer in the back yard.

Different towhees. Same treat.

Anybody else out there adding to your life list this spring?

Caster Don takes care of some lawn work despite the elements.

By KW

Listen, by golly, it’s the middle of May. That’s lawn-mowin’ time here in South Dakota’s banana belt.

At least,  that’s what Take It Outside’s intrepid field editor and all-weather lawn-care advocate Caster Don Polovich figured this week,  snowstorm or not.

Don’t you especially like the shorts?

Mom and filly are doing just fine out at Rdennis’ place.

By KW

Remember Roz? She was half of that fine Haflinger team that towed Rdennis, Schoenbeck, Murphy and me around Rd’s place a couple months back.

We had no idea she was expecting.

Well, I think Rdennis had his suspicions, but he kept them to himself until the big day came.

And the filly started prancing around her mom.

You done good, Roz.

By KW

Steve Bulle raises a question  in a comment down below that seems pertinent to our little outdoor community here on TIO: Does it make sense for the GF&P Commission to be appointed by the governor, who also appoints the GF&P secretary?

Bulle got to thinking about it after reading an AP story in the Journal written by my main flyfishing AP man, Chet Brokaw of Pierre, about the lawsuit brought by Lead veterinarian Tom Huhnerkoch to force Tim Kessler off the GF&P Commission.

And here’s a little more perspective in a story by my main  side-by-side shotgunning man, Bob Mercer.

As you can see, Kessler has managed to stay a spell, in a couple of separate stints, as a commissioner, considering the law seems to say eight is enough. But I’ve written just enough legal stories over the years to know that the law doesn’t always say what we non-lawyers - or even some lawyers - think it says.

Sometimes it doesn’t even say what a judge thinks it says, according to other judges.

Bulle doesn’t much care for the fact that Huhnerkoch is trying to kick Kessler off because he pushed for, and got, a higher mountain lion bag limit. But the whole thing got Bulle thinking about the commission system, and how it works.

He’s wondering  if there’s a better way, such as public election of commissioners. I thought that might be a problem for some hunters, since the majority of the voting population doesn’t hunt or contribute much to game management.

Would you want non-hunters selecting the people who set your hunting regulations?

I guess I hadn’t thought about a change in the commission selection process. Seems to work OK, with a mix of landowner and urban representatives, east and west, Democrat and Republican.

But maybe there’s a better way?

By KW

Anybody out there think 40 is as high as we’ll go with the lion quota?

I don’t.

I’ll be shocked if we don’t see a proposal by at least one GF&P Commissioner for a 50 quota, and maybe 30 females as a sub quota.

Meanwhile, how about that GF&P Commission proposal to cut back farther on Black Hills rifle deer licenses?

Are we at the bottom of the population cycle, and getting ready to head back up? Or do we still have some sliding to do?

Rory Fenske shows off the skull mount of his first mountain lion.

By KW

There’s a bit of an edge to a lion hunt, Rory Fenske says.

He should know. He hunted them hard  in the Black Hills for three seasons before he bagged his first, a 100-pound female.

“This is the first lion I’ve ever seen,” Rory said to a well-entertained gathering of the Black Hills Sportsmen’s Club Tuesday. “I was pretty happy when it hit the ground.”

A little relieved, too.

Rory admits he was a little spooked from time to time in his hunting, especially when he’d com upon a lion kill.

“It’s one of the scariest things you do,” he said. “The first thing, your hair stands up. And you know it’s right behind you.”

But working a kill worked for Ryan back in January, with the 2010 lion season on. He sat on the kill one day, waiting for the cat to come back. He also put up a trail camera at the spot. And it told him all he needed to know about his chosen spot.

Rory had left his hiding place near the kill by about 4:30 or 5 p.m. that first day. And the camera snapped a picture of a lion at 5:45 p.m.

“I’m pretty sure that lion had been watching me,” he said.

Gives you the creeps? Maybe a little. But not enough to keep the 18-year-old away from going out the next day and bagging his first lion.

He’ll plans to be out again next year, too.

“I’m going to get a tag and see if I can get another one,” he said.

It’s a hunting wave of the future in the Black Hills, says GF&P Commissioner Jeff Olson, who was part of the BHS gang Tuesday.

“The reality is, we’ve created a lot of lion hunters now,” Olson said.

Some of them are likely to show up at the GF&P Commission Thursday at Sylvan Lake Auditorium.

Meeting starts at 1 p.m. With public comments - official and more casual - to follow.

Think these guys are happy? Alex, left, and Zach Mergen of Rapid City gladly bear the burden of Alex’s 130-pound, North Dakota state-record paddlefish.

By KW

Asked and answered.

It didn’t take long between the time I asked our TIO faithful for help in finding the Rapid City area kid who caught the state-record paddlefish and the e-mail I got from his uncle.

Daryl Mergen of Colorado Springs sent me the photo, too.

What a fish. And what a thrill for 16-year-old Alex Mergen, a junior at Rapid City Central High School, and his 18-year-old brother, Zach.

Alex hauled in the 130-pound paddlefish yesterday on the Missouri River near the confluence with the Yellowstone about 20 miles southwest of Williston, D.D. The old record was 120 pounds in  northwestern North Dakota.

This was Alex’s third paddlefishing trip to the area and first paddler. Zach caught a 40-pounder the day before, that third paddlefish of his life.

Zach, by the way, weighs 135 pounds.

Just to put the size of the paddler in proper perspective.

On a small Black Hills stream - I think this is Deer Creek, up above Johnson Siding - beavers can make fish-holding water where they might otherwise be little or none.

By KW

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you pretty much have to live with them.

Beavers are a part of life in a world where water flows. We’d had some discussion here on TIO about the blessings and curses of beaver dams. Here’s what GF&P stream biologist Ron Koth had to say:

“It’s kind of a love-hate thing. The best thing about them is they’re temporary. And the worst thing about them is they’re temporary. There isn’t an answer that’s going to be the right answer about beavers. 

On beaver dams and their impacts on fish, Koth said this:

“Structurally, they’re not really that sound. Fish, if they want to go upstream, usually find a way. If you watch them jumping up the dam at the fairgrounds, or even trying to go up the spillway at Canyon Lake. It’s not likely that those dams are a big blockade for fish really wanting to get upstream. They’re persistent.

And:

 ” They leave a little more on the landscape when they blow out. There is the silt deal, and it’s sort of ugly. They do leave a scar. But whey they’re there and they’re fairly fresh, they provide one of the lacking elements of many black hills streams, and that’s deep-water cover.”

And here’s some additional perspective from GF&P fisheries biologist Jerry Wilhite, who said rainbow trout tagged in Deerfield have been found above the beaver dams on Castle Creek. All told, Wilhite considers beaver dams more of a positive than a negative for fish in mountain streams.

Here’s his one, two, three:

1.      Provides habitat for larger fish, especially in smaller streams.  In smaller streams there typically in not a lot of holding water for large trout.  Beaver ponds provide this habitat allowing the system to support larger fish. 

2.      Beaver ponds provide sanctuary for trout during periods of drought.  During drought, many streams become intermittent or do not have sufficient flow to sustain trout.  Beaver ponds can mitigate impacts of drought on trout populations in smaller streams.

3.      Beaver ponds provide rearing habitat for small trout.  Many streams that trout spawn in do not have sufficient flow throughout the year to provide habitat for small trout.  Beaver ponds provide this habitat allowing trout to grow to a sufficient size before migrating downstream into larger water.  Without beaver ponds, these small trout would be forced to migrate downstream at a small size leaving them vulnerable to predation or being washed downstream.