Black Hills

A portion of the Pactola Reservoir in the Black Hills. (Seth Tupper/SD Searchlight)

Federal agencies seek to protect Pactola Reservoir and Rapid Creek from mining

BY: - March 17, 2023

Two federal agencies have announced a proposal to protect 32 square miles of the Black Hills National Forest from mining. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service made the announcement in a Friday news release. The proposal covers the Pactola Reservoir and Rapid Creek Watershed, which are popular recreation destinations that also serve […]

Cold Springs Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where parcels of private land are being added to the Black Hills National Forest. (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)

Black Hills National Forest adds 239 acres through deal with elk group and landowners

BY: - March 16, 2023

The Black Hills National Forest is growing by about one-third of a square mile. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation acquired 239 acres of land from two landowners for a total of $1.1 million and conveyed it to the national forest. The land is high in the remote western area of the forest in South Dakota, […]

COMMENTARY
(Tupper family photos)

In search of a Christmas tree, we found a tradition

BY: - December 24, 2022

My wife and I didn’t realize how much we didn’t know about trees until we moved next door to the Black Hills National Forest eight years ago. That was natural for a pair of small-town, eastern South Dakota flatlanders. I grew up in Kimball and my wife grew up in Armour. Single acres of Black […]

Left: The flow on Rapid Creek while a dam gate was closed at Pactola Reservoir. Right: The bypass pipe used to keep some water flowing at Pactola while the dam gate was closed. (Photos courtesy of David Hanna)

Sudden low water in Rapid Creek frustrates anglers, water users

BY: - December 9, 2022

Anglers and water users are criticizing a Black Hills dam’s government managers for a lack of communication about sudden low-water flows threatening downstream fish and domestic water supplies. Rapid Creek flows dropped from 40 to 12 cubic feet per second on Nov. 30. That imperiled brown trout spawning, which occurs during the fall, and created a […]

Restoration work on the old McVey Fire burn area in Black Hills National Forest.

Forest Service fixing decades-old blunder in Black Hills

BY: - December 5, 2022

When foresters replanted trees decades ago after a devastating wildfire in the Black Hills, they made a mistake. They planted a species of ponderosa pine that was not native to the area.  Today, the U.S. Forest Service knows better, but effects linger from the agency’s earlier actions. Thousands of acres in the Black Hills National […]

Pine trees in the Black Hills National Forest. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

South Dakota, Wyoming governors call for re-do of Black Hills forest data

BY: - December 2, 2022

Gov. Kristi Noem has joined her counterpart in Wyoming to ask the U.S. Forest Service to redo forest condition reports that the governors call inadequate, as part of a long-running feud over current and future logging levels in the Black Hills. Noem and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon made the request in a letter to Forest […]

Restoration work on the old McVey Fire burn area in Black Hills National Forest.

Review spurs updates to Black Hills sustainable harvest report

BY: - November 17, 2022

An independent review of a federal document that helps guide timber sales in the Black Hills National Forest has led to a refinement of the statistics on forest inventory loss. One of that 2020 document’s main conclusions, however – that a reduction in logging is likely necessary to sustain the long-term health of the forest […]

A timber project in the Black Hills National Forest. (Courtesy of U.S. Forest Service)

Black Hills timber sales fall 20 percent

BY: - October 25, 2022

RAPID CITY — Timber sales in the Black Hills National Forest have declined sharply, prompting praise and condemnation. The national forest’s advisory board met recently in Rapid City, where Forest Supervisor Jeff Tomac shared figures from the 2022 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Timber sales in the forest totaled 112,874 CCF, Tomac said – […]