Plan would impose $10 million worth of fee increases on outdoor recreation

A kayaker explores Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

The agency that manages state parks and issues licenses for hunting and fishing has a plan to raise $10 million of additional annual revenue from fee increases.

The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission unanimously endorsed the proposal Thursday during a meeting in Rapid City, but the plan requires another vote at a future meeting.

Department of Game, Fish and Parks officials cited inflation as the driving force. The last round of increases occurred in 2019.

“We understand we’re reaching into people’s pockets. And we’re users ourselves. None of us want to pay any more than we have to,” said Scott Simpson, deputy secretary of the Department of Game, Fish and Parks. “We feel like these adjustments are reasonable, but they also get us to where we need to be. We feel like we can make these increases last. We’re hoping this is a five-year plan.”

The proposal is scheduled to be finalized during the commission’s Oct. 3 meeting. The public has until then to submit comments .

The proposal also includes a plan to sell outdoors-themed license plates at $50 per vehicle and $30 per motorcycle. That authority was included in a bill adopted during last winter’s legislative session in Pierre. Revenue would be used for habitat conservation.

The higher fees apply to dozens of passes and licenses for state residents and non-residents. The size of the proposed fee increases ranges from $1 to $90. They include raising annual state park passes from $36 to $40, annual resident fishing licenses from $28 to $31, and resident combination hunting and fishing licenses from $49 to $54. Additional surcharges apply to some of the fees.

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