South Dakota Wild Grassland Coalition

Protecting the Best of What's Left:
The South Dakota National Grassland Heritage Proposal

Protect it for our families, for our future



	What Our Friend, Tony Dean, Had To Say " . . . Let's relate wilderness from the perspective of a hunter. It does not take a rocket scientist among hunters to recognize that once the opening salvo takes place on opening morning of the big game seasons, no matter where you live, the best hunting is almost always found far from the nearest road." – Tony Dean, hunter/angler advocate, 1940-2008 Read more from Dean's remarks at the Fourth Annual Wilderness Symposium Read Dean's wilderness opinion editorial

Featured Areas

Indian Creek

From the dizzying heights of Sheep Mountain Table to the broad Cheyenne River valley, Indian Creek includes a vast array of landforms and unique plant life and offers hikers, horseback riders, hunters, birdwatchers, and pioneer scenery lovers one of the most inspiring and diverse wilderness experiences left in the nation’s Great Plains. The proposal would protect approximately 29,600 acres, including the largest block of scenic Cheyenne River badlands breaks in South Dakota.

South Dakota’s wild, wide-open places evoke the spectacular majesty of the nation’s original west.

Wild public lands with names like Red Shirt, Indian Creek, and Chalk Hills — windswept tablelands, sheer cliffs, stark buttes, and waving prairies—are part of what makes our state unique and special. But less and less of the once vast prairie remains, given over to cropland and development.

Across the state, citizens are working to designate these three special places as wilderness, protected from off-road vehicle abuse, oil and gas drilling, mining and roadbuilding. The South Dakota National Grassland Heritage Act would preserve approximately 50,000 acres of public land (8.4 percent of Buffalo Gap National Grassland, or 5.8 percent of South Dakota's three national grasslands).

Nearly 200 years ago, Lewis and Clark found golden eagles soaring, bighorn sheep grazing and antelope at play when they passed through South Dakota’s expansive, untamed grasslands en route to the Pacific Ocean. Today, we have a chance to preserve some of this amazing prairie for future generations.

Together, we can ensure that some of this wild land remains a legacy for future generations, by creating America’s first national grassland wilderness.

Nearly 20 percent of South Dakotans hunt annually, and together with visitors to the state, in 2001 spent $223 million on hunting. It is estimated that these hunters bring almost $13 million in state sales and motor fuel taxes to South Dakota. There are over 5,500 jobs related to hunting activities resulting in over $100 million in salaries and wages. In addition, based on 2001 data, 358,000 people (both residents and non-residents) spent an estimated $92 million on wildlife-watching activities.

Source: http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/BasicFacts.htm

View of Indian Creek area