Briefs: Bower racquetball tourney planned

By Journal staff | Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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The Kirk Bower Memorial racquetball tourney will begin Nov. 12 at 5:30 p.m. at the Rapid City YMCA.

The three-day tournament has Open, A, B, C, Over-50, and Juniors U-18 divisions.

The tournament costs $25 for YMCA members, $35 for non-members and juniors play free. The tournament will have a social for all players Saturday night.

The tournament is named after an avid racquetball player from Rapid City. Bower, who was a local dentist, was also well-known as an Elvis impersonator.

Television program showcases state: The new television program Nature Adventures treks across the South Dakota and shows viewers that adventure is where you are. The program is a cooperative effort of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Caribou Productions, South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks and various businesses.

Hosts Terri Lawrenz and Todd Magnuson have crossed the state to find fascinating places, animals and people. Their goal is “to provide students all over the world a resource in which to learn all about the beautiful state of South Dakota.”

Four episodes air in November on Sundays at 4:30 p.m. MST.

Learn more at the Caribou Productions at www.sdnatureadventures.org.

Testing of Elk, Deer Continues for Chronic Wasting Disease: As South Dakota hunters prepare for deer and elk hunting seasons, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department is getting ready for another round of testing for chronic wasting disease.

Surveillance for CWD takes place in South Dakota counties where elk and deer have been discovered with the disease. Those areas include the Black Hills, and Fall River, Custer and Pennington counties.

“We are monitoring the prevalence of the disease in these areas to see if CWD is becoming more common,” says GFP Big Game Biologist Steve Griffin. “There are no known human health risks involved with this disease, so we are concentrating on determining the consequences for wildlife populations.”

Hunters who receive a license for one of the counties in the CWD surveillance area will be notified by mail by the Game, Fish and Parks Department with details concerning participation, drop-off points and testing procedures. Hunters who participate by submitting a deer or elk head will be notified about the results of the test.

During last year’s surveillance, a total of 15 deer and four elk were found to have the disease. Since 1997, 54 deer and 23 elk have tested positive for CWD in South Dakota. During that time, more than 17,400 animals have been tested for the disease.

CWD is a fatal brain disease found in both captive and free-ranging elk and deer. In the disease’s late stages, infected animals become emaciated, behave abnormally, lose control of muscles and other bodily functions and die.

Big Game Tags must be Checked, Secured: Hunters who receive tags in the mail for South Dakota’s big game hunting seasons should make a concerted effort to check them to see if they have the correct tags.

“Check the tags as soon as you get them,” advises Scott Simpson, supervisor of the licensing office for the Game, Fish and Parks Department. “Don’t wait until the start of the hunting season.”

Checking the tags upon receipt is particularly important in the case of hunters who drew tags for the East River deer season. “We’re using a new mailing process this year. In an effort to cut mailing expenses, we are putting both tags of a two-tag license in one envelope,” Simpson said. “We have heard some concerns from a few hunters who received the incorrect tags.”

Approximately 220,000 big game tags are processed every year by the GFP licensing office in Pierre. The tags are put into envelopes by automated inserting machines. “On rare occasions the adhesive on big game tags can cause them to stick together, resulting in the wrong tags being inserted in an envelope,” Simpson said.