Farmers and ranchers won’t be the only South Dakotans hit hard by the drought conditions found throughout the state.
“It’s definitely a concern,” Runia said of the drought.
The years 2002 and 2006 had similar climate conditions to what South Dakota has seen so far in 2017.
The counties in the Missouri River valley now boast the state’s highest pheasant production.
The problem is that central and western South Dakota counties tend to experience drought more often and more severely than counties to the east.
In bad years, that same habitat can still provide at least some of a pheasant’s needs.
One of the newest GF&P programs aimed at creating those types of habitats is the brood-plot program.
The program gives landowners free seeds for flowering plants than can be used for wildlife food plots.
The flowering plants provide two things: the first is a canopy for pheasant chicks to hide under and move through, and the second is a buffet of insects for the chicks to eat.
That amounts to about 2,500 of the roughly 10,000 food-plot acres for which GF&P provides seed.

Turkish gov’t set to recycle water to prevent drought.
The government is getting ready to prepare a project to reduce the effects of drought which has become a global issue in recent years.
The Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs is to search for ways to recycle the water used in households, industry, tourism, energy production and agriculture and propose new ideas to use water sources more efficiently.
It has been announced that the government and the ministry aims to use water sources efficiently to reduce the need for new water sources for the growing population.
The plan is to prepare a project to recycle the water used in different sectors in the next two years.
Malatya and Kayseri provinces have been chosen as the pilot areas for the new water recycling project.
According to the prediction of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the mean yearly temperature of Turkey is to rise 2.5 to 4 degrees Celsius.
It is also predicted that Turkey will probably face severe drought, while the northern regions will struggle with heavy floods.
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THIS JUST IN … Governor Brown writes Speaker Ryan, opposing HR 23, Gaining Responsibility on Water (GROW) Act of 2017.
Governor Brown has sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan opposing HR 23, the Gaining Responsibility on Water (GROW) Act of 2017.
23, the “Gaining Responsibility on Water Act of 2017.” Water defines the west and for over a century Congress and the courts have consistently recognized that state law determines how water is developed and used.
Western states have successfully resisted any attempted intrusion into this essential attribute of their sovereignty, including in the operation or construction of water projects involving the federal government.
This bill overrides California water law, ignoring our state’s prerogative to oversee our waters.
It is also not smart.
Making decisions requires listening to and balancing among the needs of California’s nearly 40 million residents and taking into consideration economics, biodiversity, and wildlife resources.
All of this is best done at the state and local level – not in a polarized political climate 3,000 miles away.
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Drought conditions taking hold in South Texas, chance for rain Sunday.
Drought conditions are beginning to take hold across parts of South Texas, with New Braunfels Utility users now under Stage 1 water restrictions.
Download the KSAT Weather app for iPhone and Android As for San Antonio Water System customers, it could take more time before Stage 1 restrictions are imposed.
High temperatures today should reach near 98, much like yesterday, with mostly sunny skies.
Continued Weather Coverage Stick with KSAT 12 News, your Weather Authority for the latest weather updates.
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I learned of weather modification a couple years ago from some friends that live in Bowman County.
Bowman, Burke, McKenzie, Mountrail, Ward, Williams and part of Slope counties in western North Dakota are members of the North Dakota Cloud Modification Project to help diminish severe storms, mainly hail.
With less precipitation, this just adds to the drought.
You can watch the radar on the North Dakota State Water Commission website (www.swc.nd.gov) and follow the airplanes circle around in front of the storms.
Since then, participation from counties has diminished down to seven.
Drought in western North Dakota has been extreme for years and it continues to be.
Opponents of weather modification have had this issue on the ballot in these counties.
But the weather modification always wins because of the urban vote.
The urban residents like weather modification because it protects their possessions.
Weather modification needs to go away.

BLOG ROUND-UP: Delta tunnels biological opinions, “Spec” groundwater markets, Drought funding and the budget, How difficult would it be for the Trump Administration to replace the Clean Water Rule?, and more ….
Restore the Delta critiques shortcomings of Metropolitan’s white paper on Delta tunnels construction: “Today, environmental nonprofit Restore the Delta released their official response to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s first of three “white papers” regarding the Delta Tunnels proposal.
The Tunnels provide no benefits to any fish, ecosystems or Delta communities during construction for at least 13 years.
The project will destroy the Delta in order to export more water.” … ” Read more from Restore the Delta here: Restore the Delta critiques shortcomings of Metropolitan’s white paper on Delta tunnels construction Biological Opinions for the Delta Tunnels include new cuts to water diversions and further increase risk to water agencies that must decide whether to invest billions: Jeff Michael writes, “The much anticipated biological opinions (Biops) for the Delta tunnels (aka WaterFix) were said to be the documents that would provide more clarity to water agencies about how much water they would receive, and allow them to make a decision about whether they were willing to pay for the $16 billion tunnels by September.
It’s very likely that at least some of that money will go to a large surface water storage project, although it could also fund groundwater storage or conjunctive use projects.
… ” Read more from the California Water Blog here: Reflections on Cadillac Desert Carl Boronkay: A giant in water passes: “There are people throughout history who leave huge impacts on our world, yet receive scant recognition.
Despite these challenges, GDEs are receiving increasing attention worldwide through the development of water management policy initiatives.
… ” Read more from the California Fisheries Blog here: Splittail status, end of June 2017 Winter – Spring – Summer – Fall: “Over a period of two weeks in June, life in the Sacramento Valley, which usually takes on a certain predictability, was anything but that.
… ” Read more from the Legal Planet blog here: How difficult would it be for the Trump Administration to replace the Clean Water Rule?
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WEST SALEM — Matt Henderson was battling a number of things while trying to keep his rocket-speed but losing-traction-fast stock car on the track and off the wall.
As the laps ticked off during the Late Model feature race Saturday night at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway, the likeable and popular driver from La Crosse was in the lead.
With four laps, then three in the 25-lap feature race, Henderson’s car broke loose, then snapped sideways coming out of Turn 4.
Henderson somehow white-knuckled his car enough to hold off Powell — who broke into a wry smile in a postrace interview when asked if he thought about a bump-and-run tactic — to snap an eight-year victory drought.
I saw the 23 car (Powell) up to third, and once I seen him behind me, I thought for sure he was going to get me,” said Henderson, who tried, but couldn’t hold back his excitement.
The top side got really slippery, otherwise I would have gone to the top side, but all the bite was on the bottom (of the track),” Powell said.
Wagner, another driver who has been knocking on victory’s door but yet to get an answer, led the first 13 laps before the race’s lone caution came out.
When a caution comes out, drivers must choose a top or bottom lane as they come back around the front stretch.
An orange cone is set up at the finish line, and as the drivers rumble around the track under caution, they must choose top or bottom.
I could ride around following him, right on his bumper, and I was just waiting for him,” Henderson said of Wagner.

Despite hot temps in the forecast, not much drought in the state.
But climatologists meeting on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus are cautiously optimistic that drought generally won’t be a problem for the state this summer.
Drought is loosely defined as a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time — usually a season or more — resulting in a water shortage for some activity, group, or environmental sector.
Drought developed rapidly in the region’s northern Plains over the past one to two months with almost 30 percent of North Dakota in extreme drought.
But even that is expected to show improvements by the end of September, Fuchs said.
While Nebraskans were fairly irritated by all the smoke their southern neighbors sent their way in the spring, they can be grateful this summer for Kansas being pretty much drought-free and sending the gulf air on up without drying it out.
But they’re watching the next few weeks of hot and dry weather, he said, for how it could affect the state.
For the 2017 calendar year, the majority of the state is shown as normal, with pockets of dryness from the Panhandle to the southwest, and then in the north-central and northeast.
"We’re really about one or two good rains in most of the state from being normal to above normal for the calendar year," he said.
On water supply, Fuchs said Lake McConaughy is at about 85 percent of capacity, about what it was in November, with seasonal demands for irrigation increasing.

Iranian stalagmites suggest Middle East unlikely to get reprieve from drought.
July 10 (UPI) — New analysis of Iranian stalagmites have offered a detailed history of water resources in the region.
The findings suggest the Middle East is unlikely to enjoy a relief from its prolonged drought for at least another 10,000 years.
The findings suggest water in the Middle East is likely to remain scarce for some time.
"Local governments generally prefer the narrative that the region is only in a temporary dry spell and better prospects of water availability lay ahead," Sevag Mehterian, lead author of the new study and a doctoral student at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School, said in a news release.
"Our study has found evidence to the contrary, suggesting that in fact, the future long-term trend based on paleoclimate reconstructions is likely towards diminishing precipitation, with no relief in the form of increased Mediterranean storms, the primary source of annual precipitation to the region, in the foreseeable future."
Stalagmites are formed by calcium deposits on the cave’s floor, which build up as water drips from the cave’s ceiling.
Shifts in chemical composition with their layers, like an ice or sediment core, can reveal changes in climate.
Ice cores and sediment records confirmed the link between the climate patterns of the Middle East and Eurasia.
Climate models suggest solar insolation is unlikely to increase for another 10,000 years, which means reprieve from the Middle East’s prolonged drought isn’t likely to arrive any time soon.

THIS JUST IN … House expected this week to take up HR 23, the Gaining Responsibility on Water Act; Feinstein, Harris oppose bill.
23, the Gaining Responsibility on Water Act, authored by Congressman David Valadao.
It also reforms onerous federal laws – such as the Central Valley Project Improvement Act and the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act – that have severely curtailed water deliveries and resulted in hundreds of billions of gallons of badly needed water being flushed into the ocean.” Here is information on HR 23 from GovTrack.
California’s Central Valley helps feed the world.
His legislation would preempt existing California environmental laws and regulations, giving the Trump administration greater control over water management in our state.“Science should be at the center of all decisions affecting California’s water supply.
This bill would eliminate the existing biological opinions required under the Endangered Species Act.
It also prevents California from using new scientific data to manage our water supply by reverting us back to outdated limits set more than two decades ago.
If this bill passes the House of Representatives, we will fight to defeat it in the Senate.” Stay tuned, more to come … ——————————————– Sign up for daily email service and you’ll always be one of the first to know!
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