SDPB | By Jackson Dircks
Published May 11, 2026 at 3:35 PM CDTListen • 1:58
A state commission seeks to reduce deer hunting license and tag numbers across the state due to growing struggles with the population.
At the Game, Fish and Parks Commission’s latest meeting, commissioners approved multiple changes to deer license numbers. The changes are to help deer populations in certain areas in the state, especially southeastern South Dakota.
East River Deer tags were reduced by 700 in certain areas and West River tags reduced by 700. Those measures are done to try and increase deer population in areas where it’s lacking. The reason for some of the decreases goes back decades. From 2000-2010, South Dakota was abundant in its deer population. The state increased license numbers and other measures to lower the population.
Andy Lindbloom is a Senior Big Game Biologist for GFP.
“So, the results were we got on top of the deer herd, we had some record harvests, and our deer populations were reduced substantially which was obviously part of our object,” Lindbloom said. “But we went beyond the objective.”
He listed reasons for that: a record harvest, severe winter weather and droughts, hemorrhagic disease infecting the deer population and substantial habitat losses.
To mitigate that, GFP monitors deer population around the state and reduces tag licenses accordingly.
In East River, the commission reduced 12 “units,” land areas that GFP allocates licenses to, by 20-50% based on population need. The commission restricted archery and muzzleloader hunters statewide to bucks only. GFP’s Meade A unit saw 250 fewer whitetail doe licenses. In the Perkins unit, there are 350 fewer antlerless licenses.
Commissioner Charles Spring shared he wants to see some areas in the state that are struggling to switch to buck-only licenses. He particularly referenced another Meade unit.
“I don’t care if there’s only 2%, 5% does killed in those units, that’s 2 and 5% too many,” Spring said.
The commission ultimately accepted Spring’s suggestion, getting rid of 100 doe-only tags, and converting 600 any deer tags to buck only. Now that the GFP Commission approved the changes, it heads to the legislative Rules Review Committee for final approval.