After an impartial federal investigation exonerated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service game warden Bob Prieksat of misconduct allegations last week, a deal was offered that would reduce the time Prieksat spends in the field.

Under the move, Prieksat, who was accused of being overly aggressive in the course of his law enforcement duties, would concentrate on supervisory duties. The Fish and Wildlife Service would go ahead with a previous plan to add an agent at its Pierre office.

That strikes us a worthy compromise that gets all parties involved back to the task of protecting the state's wildlife.

However, the administration of Gov. Mike Rounds, which had been threatening to have the state Game, Fish & Parks Department suspend cooperative agreements with the federal agency unless Prieksat were fired or transferred, is still pushing to have Prieksat barred from field work altogether.

Given that the two-month investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Service's Professional Responsibility Unit - which is akin to an internal affairs department in a law enforcement agency - cleared Prieksat of wrongdoing, we believe that it is time for the governor and his staff to drop the matter.

State Game, Fish & Parks agents who spoke with investigators gave Prieksat high marks, according to Gary Mowad, regional law enforcement supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Other complaints were mistakenly attributed to Prieksat, and some were violators who embellished their stories to make Prieksat look bad, Mowad said in a story in the Journal on June 5.

The strong support from the state agents who have worked with Prieksat speaks especially in favor of Rounds moving away from insisting on keeping the federal warden from checking hunters in the field.

News stories by Journal reporter Kevin Woster have shown that Prieksat may have upset the state's leadership with some of his actions. The governor's brother was among people Prieksat investigated for illegal waterfowl processing but was not charged in the case.

Therefore, to avoid further allegations that the state's stance on Prieksat is politically motivated, it would be best for the governor to drop the issue and move on to other more important work of the people.