John Pollmann

The South Dakota pheasant season kicks off this weekend with the three-day, residents-only early opportunity on public ground, while the real “orange army” must wait one more week before descending on the state.

A series of heavy rainfall events in late June are clouding the pheasant-production outlook in some areas of South Dakota, although wildlife experts remain largely optimistic about the kind of bird numbers upland hunters may see this fall.
Over a foot of rain fell on parts of southeastern South Dakota during the final week of June, causing significant flooding in both rural and urban areas. The effects of the flooding in this part of the state – roughly outlined by state Highways 34 and 19 – were most apparent in those grassy waterways that typically help usher normal runoff through fields of corn and soybeans.