Doug 3 times you gave sportsman a chance to do themselves in and go to pay to hunt and you think the sportsman are to blame? LMAO! You want elk but if they become a problem you want sportsmans dollars to help fix it, yet they can't hunt unless they pay you, or if you get to many then you want state help off of the backs of sportsman?
What was the DU talk of being anti landowner? They have many programs suited for wetland habitat and cost hsaring yet many don't want to give up the gold of the crops! That is anti landowner? tell me how please? I am not the biggest fan of DU, myself I like delta waterfowl much better as they are not fence riders so your comment from DU strikes me as odd, they ussaly will tell each side what "THEY" want to hear instead of the truth.
Wrong again Doug, there are many places East of you that have good pheasant numbers, they don;t charge at most they reserve opener for close friends/family after that I have zero problem finding places to hunt pheasants for free when I feel like going to shoot some birds in the country! SD has been into pay to hunt for pheasants for along time and will continue to be so, until the time comes that the dollars wanted and income made make less and less sense to those traveling to SD. Try Texas Doug you will have a hard time finding a place to hunt anything except coyotes and feral hogs for free, as they cause dollar damage and those species can't/won't garner the high prices paid for deer,turkey and exoctics down there.
You don't want road hunting so then all can pay to hunt or hammer the crap out of the limited public areas of your state in the highest amount of pheasant country, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look on your states web site and see in the majority of phesant habitat you have the least amount of public hunting! Yet you and the neighbors who have been charging 150.00 a day per hunter are willing to give up the fees as long as there is no road hunting allowed? You really want the sportsman to buy into that? Once signed into law it would be very tough to over turn and then you have nothing but paid to hunt guranteed! Sportsman are not all dumb Doug.
The almighty dollar get's in the way of a tradition that was and still is in some areas something other than a $$$$ on the heads of wildlife.