Bluestem is astonished by the resilience of the pheasant species, or at least the ability of Republicans on different sides of the Minnesota-South Dakota border to define state highway right-of-ways as suitable habitat for the non-native game bird.
This reflection is prompted by the Keloland headline over the Bob Mercer article, Governor Noem wants warnings issued for mowing early along state highways, as well as the copy:
South Dakota doesn’t allow mowing rights of way along state highways east of the Missouri River before July 10 in most instances. This summer, Governor Kristi Noem wants landowners reminded about the regulation, which is intended to protect pheasants and other wildlife that use ditches for nesting.
Noem has directed state Department of Transportation crews to suspend mowing until July 10 except in rural areas. She also wants conservation officers for the state Game, Fish and Parks Department and state Highway Patrol personnel to keep track and issue warnings.
Tony Leif is director for GFP’s Wildlife Division. He said the mowing ban is a state Transportation Commission rule.
“Our goal this year is to ensure that farmers and ranchers are aware of the date when state highway roadsides can be mowed for hay. GFP conservation officers will stop and visit with landowners who they see actively mowing state highway rights of way prior to July 10,” he continued.
“Our officers will reiterate the governor’s interest in promoting pheasant habitat and convey the message that this landowner outreach effort is being done in line with those efforts. Where our officers find rights of way that have already been mowed, we will record the date and location of where the right of way mowing occurred. . . .
“South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers are on the roadways every day, enforcing the laws of the state. If a trooper sees someone mowing in the ditch before July 10, they will both educate and warn the individual,” Colonel Rick Miller, superintendent of the Highway Patrol, said Wednesday. . . .
Pheasant habitat is an emphasis of the new Noem administration.
“Roadside ditches provide valuable nesting cover for pheasants, especially in portions of the state with limited CRP land or other upland nesting habitat,” she said.
“Mowing too early can kill hens and newly hatched broods, and result in lower pheasant populations. It is critical that everyone refrains from mowing or haying until July 10.”
The Noem pandering to pheasant habitat contrasts sharply with the debate in Minnesota over mowing and haying state right-of-way ditches, where efforts to enforce the state's August 1 mowing opener have been greeted with calls to allow haying at any time, along with claims that leaving habitat alone during the nesting season does no good for pheasants, as they don't nest in ditches to begin with.
As we noted in our lede, the species is highly adaptable to varying political ecologies on either side of the states' borders.
What Minnesota Republicans said about ditch mowing
We recommend checking out Tony Kennedy's 2018 article in the Strib, Minnesota farmers, environmentalists and legislators stuck in a ditch over roadside maintenance, Iowa Public Television's report from Collen Bradford Kranz, Minnesota Continues to Debate Hay Making in Ditches, and 2018's Minnesota News Network's MN House authorizes extension of moratorium on permits for ditch mowing, haying (with AUDIO), which drops a money quote from Mazeppa Republican Steve Drazkowski:
MN-DOT for another year, until April 30, 2019, could *not* require permits for people to mow or hay in trunk highway ditches along their property, under a bill that cleared the Minnesota House late Tuesday on a strong vote. Members of both sides of the aisle say they need more time because agreement has been difficult — Mazeppa Republican Steve Drazkowski putting his finger on one major point of contention: “If people want to grow bees and butterflies and birds, there’s lots and lots and lots of space well, well, well beyond the two or three steps out of the car off of the road.” Drazkowski argues ditches should be clear for safety reasons, but others say that’s important wildlife habitat.
Now, Bluestem isn't a fan of all of Kristi Noem's notions about nurturing pheasant populations--the nest predator program is summarized in Dakota Free Press's April article, Noem to Kids: Go Outside and Kill Something!--but we give her credit for asking South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers to scold those mowing state highway right-of-ways before July 10.
Back in June, in a Morning's Hot Dish at the Strib, we read:
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will have a lunch convo with Minnesota Chamber members on June 19 at the Nicollet Island Pavilion in Minneapolis. Republicans are in desperate need of women leaders. Interesting that she’s making the trip over here. There will be a GOP post-Trump sooner or later, after all.
While the Strib reporter thinks he's spotted a contender, Bluestem suspects her willingness to oppress farmers who want to hay public lands won't get her support from rural Republican leaders in Minnesota, any more than her veto of bipartisan industrial hemp legislation will win fans among farmers across America. Add the suburban vote-killing Constitution carry bill and the anti-Soros malarky when introducing her past-deadline "riot boosting" bill--later denied in court, Bluestem believes there's something to alienate most voters.
As the cliche asserts, even a stopped clock is right twice a date, and Noem's on more solid ground with mowing than Republicans in Minnesota.
For more information about the debate in Minnesota, see our March 2018 post, MN House bills go after habitat with a vengeance
Meme: Not in South Dakota, oddly enough.
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