South Dakota

Government land conservation is soaring in South Dakota, but some fear a reversal

Published

2 years ago

April 14, 2022

A federal program pays farmers to maintain marginal land out of crop manufacturing, and South Dakota enrollments are increased than they’ve been for the reason that Nineties.

That helps wildlife and the setting. However market forces may reverse the development.

Jim Faulstich has been managing his grassland in central South Dakota for half a century.

Many years in the past, he enrolled a few of it in a authorities program. It is referred to as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). It pays farmers to put aside land that is environmentally delicate. Farmers get some cash, and the general public will get advantages like cleaner water and extra wildlife habitat. The land additionally fights local weather change by storing carbon.

South Dakota enrollments at present complete 1.7 million acres, based on April knowledge from the U.S. Division of Agriculture. That’s essentially the most acres since 1998.

Faulstich credit increased funds.

“They had been means too low to be aggressive prior to now years. Now that they are extra aggressive with precise rental charges, it is generated much more curiosity.”

Funds to South Dakota landowners enrolled in CRP climbed from $56 million in 2011 to $101 million by 2019. And since then, enrollments have elevated by 600,000 acres.

However now, quite a few components may strain farmers to place extra land into crop manufacturing. These embrace increased costs on the grocery retailer, the lack of Ukrainian agriculture manufacturing, and new federal authorization for increased ethanol blends.

Deepthi Kolady is an affiliate professor at South Dakota State College. She says taking acres out of conservation applications is the unsuitable selection.

“As a result of largely they’re marginal lands, and to supply on these marginal lands, utilizing these fertilizers, that are very highly-priced, might not be economically sustainable, and might not be environmentally sustainable.”

South Dakota rancher Zach Ducheneaux oversees CRP as administrator of the USDA’s Farm Service Company. He says farmers and ranchers are dedicated to this system.

“All of that static is occurring concerning the Ukraine and crop manufacturing and crop costs, however producers see this as a viable possibility — to maintain this land in conservation practices as a result of they’re clearly seeing the advantages.”

Ducheneaux factors to livestock grazing allowed on these acres throughout a drought season as one instance of a further profit for farmers and ranchers.

And Ducheneaux is optimistic about this system’s future.

“There’s a number of of these massive land-based tribes in South Dakota which have a possibility to make the most of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and do reservation-wide conservation planning for the primary time ever.

“So, we’re working particularly with among the tribes in that state and others to attempt to convey these agreements to bear in order that we are able to do a number of watershed-level conservation planning.”

The unique intent of the Conservation Reserve Program was to scale back extra crop manufacturing and assist stabilize markets. Agriculture within the early Eighties was in a disaster, partly from federal insurance policies that inspired fence-row to fence-row farming.

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South Dakota

Update: Missing 17-year-old in Turner County located in Yankton

Published

6 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Update: Missing 17-year-old in Turner County located in Yankton

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Update: 17-year-old Vevon McGee was located in Yankton Saturday around 6:15 pm, which is nearly 50 miles from where he went missing.

Previous story…

The search is on for a missing person in Turner County. Tevon McGee went missing Friday night around 11:00 pm.

He is 17 years old and has the development of an 8-year-old.

He was last seen near Marion wearing the same shirt as the one on the missing poster.

Agencies searching for missing 17 year old in Turner County(Cordell Wright)

The Turner County Sheriff’s Office and the other local rescue agencies are assisting with the search effort.

Those with information are asked to call the Turner County Sheriff’s Office at (605) 297-3225

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South Dakota

Fiery railcars with hazardous material mostly contained after derailment in North Dakota

Published

13 hours ago

July 6, 2024

Press Room

Fiery railcars with hazardous material mostly contained after derailment in North Dakota

Enflamed railcars carrying hazardous material were mostly extinguished Saturday, a day after they derailed in a remote area of North Dakota.

Officials said Friday no one had been hurt. The threat to those living nearby remained low, according to county emergency management, which reported no air contamination in the area or downwind.

Twenty-nine cars of a CPKC train derailed around 3:45 a.m. in a marshy area surrounded by farmland that is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Fargo, county emergency management director Andrew Kirking said.

Kirking said in a statement Saturday that the fire would still occasionally flare up as responders moved railcars from the tracks. But “firefighting operations through the night and morning have been incredibly successful,” he said.

Emergency officials now say the contents of the derailed cars included anhydrous ammonia, methanol and plastic pellets.

Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager for the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, identified ammonia as a potential risk, but wind was carrying the smoke away from the nearby town of Bordulac, which has about 20 residents.

“Wind has been in our favor on this,” Suess said Friday.

Exposure to high concentrations of ammonia in the air can cause burning of the eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract, and can result in blindness, lung damage or death, health officials say. Exposure to lower amounts can result in coughing and irritation of the nose and throat.

CPKC said in a statement Friday that it has “initiated its emergency response plan and launched a comprehensive, coordinated response.”

The railroad was the result of a merger last year of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that it is investigating.

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South Dakota

From drought to floods: Soggy summer takes South Dakota to new extreme

Published

20 hours ago

July 6, 2024

Press Room

From drought to floods: Soggy summer takes South Dakota to new extreme

Emergency management officials have shifted their focus from flooding in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska to further south on the Missouri River, where more rain this week brought predictions of second crests.

Flood concerns were being felt as far south as St. Louis as the Missouri River continues to carry runoff from record-setting storms in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, combined with more recent rains over Missouri. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cut back water releases from the dam system it manages in the Dakotas.

“In response to the rainfall, the releases from Fort Randall and Gavins Point dams were reduced,” said John Remus, chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. “The lower releases were able to reduce downstream river stages, but they could not completely offset all of the flooding in the Sioux City area.”

This year’s waves of precipitation, while damaging to many in southeastern South Dakota, have had some positives. All of eastern South Dakota has escaped drought conditions that had gripped parts of the state for years, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.